Final Fantasy: Infinite Loops
by Tovath
Summary: Part of the Infinite Loops fanverse. Time keeps reseting and the verious heroes of the Final fantasy games have to deal with this fact
1. Chapter 1

Final Fantasy Infinite Loops

Chapter One

Disclaimer: All of the Final Fantasy charaters belong to Square Enix. The original idea for the infinite loops comes from Innortal and later codified by Saphroneth. OathtoOblivion started the Final Fantasy Loops thread and was the first compilier. I think that's every thing...Oh yes Spacebattles is who hosts the Infinite Loops threads.

-o-

(OathtoOblivion)

Yggdrasil, the World Tree. Damaged as it was, universe after universe was put into the safe mode known as the Time Loops in an attempt to fix everything. It was still slow-going though...the estimates kept getting pushed back and back, and no one could tell when it was going to end. Still, it didn't matter to a certain old man, who was typing away at his terminal.

This was Odin, the Allfather, and head of the Norse Pantheon. Now, you might think that since the tree is called Yggdrasil, he was in charge of it. Well, he wasn't, but he has a lot of clout because of his position of Norse Pantheon Head. And while he could have used it in a similar vein to certain other Admins (COUGH*ZEUS*COUGH), Odin was a responsible man. Why else would he have personally taken on the task of handling both of these rather large Loop branches? He had already gotten the first of the Digimon Loops going, and now he had turned his attention to his larger assignment. He was just lucky that Huginn and Muginn were busy pestering Thor. Something about wanting to give the Marvel Loop Anchor a crow theme his next Loop or something?

[BRANCH: FINAL FANTASY: PARTIALLY AVAILABLE FOR LOOPING STATUS]  
[FOLLOWING SUB-BRANCHES AVAILABLE FOR LOOPING]

Odin frowned as he viewed the list of Loops within the branch that could Loop at this point in time. It was a rather large number of sub-branches, but less than he was expecting. Some of them had more problems than he had assumed, and the oldest sub-branch's data was fragmented. Luckily, another sub-branch lead right into it, so he could stitch them together to reconstruct some of the lost data. But that sub-branch required data from twelve of the other sub-branches, all of which needed to be Looping. At this point, Odin just decided to start activating the ones he could, and then worry about stitching Loops together.

"Which one though?" he murmured to himself. There was still a large number to choose from, after all. He mulled over it for a bit before his eye fell on one in particular. Reviewing the data over, he nodded in satisfaction. Yes, this one would do. In a flurry of activity, he typed away at his terminal, setting the baseline.

[SUB-BRANCH: FINAL FANTASY IV]  
[BASELINE COMPILED]  
[SETTING ANCHOR]  
[ANCHOR SET]  
[SUB-BRANCH: ANCHOR: CECIL HARVEY]  
[SUB-BRANCH: INITIALIZATION COMPLETE]  
[ACTIVATE SUB-BRANCH?]  
[YES/NO]

Odin nodded. It was time. He hit the Enter key.

[YES]  
[SUB-BRANCH: ACTIVATED]  
[LOOP ITERATION: START]

And the first of the Final Fantasy Loops were active. But Odin couldn't stop there. He immediately started reviewing the data to choose the next one. He couldn't afford to let up.

1.1 (Gamer A)

The Red Wings, an airship fleet known as the greatest military force in the world and the Pride of Baron, was returning from a mission. But while they were successful, their pride had taken a severe hit.

Cecil knew it all by heart. The atrocity he led, his men left guilt-ridden and confused, and Biggs and Wedge voicing everyone's concerns aloud for him to hear. This had become a source of frustration for Cecil in his new lives: somehow, he was being sent back to shortly after his first large act of Evil, with no idea as to why. He would need to spend the rest of his days being the best knight, the best king, the best Man he could be to make up for it.

To start, he would no longer be an apologist for the Usurper's orders. "That's enough. You're right to be confused. There were too many casualties on both sides today for a cause we know too little about. However- ,"

Cecil caught himself. That was different - normally the Mysidian Mages were too inexperienced and slow to cause any harm to his troops. They were innocent villagers who knew nothing of war... usually. They were just as reluctant this time, but...

 _As the soldiers advanced, striking down those in their way, one shrouded man near the back seemed to tremble in fear... until he burst out shouting. "...Fira! You know nothing of the crystal's necessity to us!" He had been chanting a spell under his breath the entire time? As the surge of fire lashed out at the squad in front of Cecil, the dark knight had drawn on his pain to send a wave of darkness through the enemy, bringing a quick end to the skirmish before any of the others could repeat this performance. He quickly barked orders to a Sergeant to turn back and raid the shops - get some Phoenix Down before it was too late._

Back in the present, he continued, "In order to protect Baron's interests, the Red Wings must maintain cohesion. I will find the King's intentions and ensure that we need not doubt ourselves again. But now, look to your homes."

That seemed to have settled their spirits. He couldn't speak of mutiny now, when they were still resentful of their losses as much as their victory - and when there was no direct proof of Cagnazzo's presence yet. If he could lure the Archfiend into the open early on, then perhaps he could begin adjusting things for the better. On the other hand, if he overplayed his hand then the real enemy might change his plans to something he would be less able to counter...

Planning out his next moves, even as the regularly scheduled flock of Flying Eyeballs attacked, he allowed himself a sly smile beneath his Helmet. If there were changes, however slight, to the history he knew then there might be some clue to be found there.

 _A knight's path never ends. Words I've lived by, even if they seem to be more literal than I thought._

-o-

 _Between Loops_

[SUB-BRANCH: FINAL FANTASY VII]  
[BASELINE COMPILED]  
[SETTING ANCHOR]  
[ANCHOR SET]  
[SUB-BRANCH: ANCHOR: CLOUD STRIFE]  
[SUB-BRANCH: INITIALIZATION COMPLETE]  
[ACTIVATE SUB-BRANCH?]  
[YES/NO]

[YES]  
[SUB-BRANCH: ACTIVATED]  
[LOOP ITERATION: START]

1.2 (Joy22)

Cloud observed the person before him.

It was a beautiful silver-haired woman, with green Mako eyes and stripperiffic leather outfit and a 7-foot tall nodachi...Wait a minute.

"Hello Cloud-kun...Puppet." Girl!Sephiroth winked her eyelashes.

 _Fuck this_ , Cloud grimaced, using Master Summon Materia to summon every available Summon, from Choco  & Mog to Knights of the Round.

-o-

 _Between Loops_

[SUB-BRANCH: FINAL FANTASY TACTICS ADVANCE]  
[BASELINE COMPILED]  
[SETTING ANCHOR]  
[ANCHOR SET]  
[SUB-BRANCH: ANCHOR: MARCHE RADIUJU]  
[SUB-BRANCH: INITIALIZATION COMPLETE]  
[ACTIVATE SUB-BRANCH?]  
[YES/NO]

[YES]  
[SUB-BRANCH: ACTIVATED]  
[LOOP ITERATION: START]

1.3 (Drakohahn)

When the blonde haired young man woke up that morning, he didn't really think anything was wrong. There wasn't anything really out of place: snow on the ground, his brother still in bed and his brother's wheelchair beside it. However, that all changed when he reached school. Those bullies were picking on Mewt again...but hadn't he dealt with them already? And why isn't Mewt making them stop? He's done it before.

The memories in his head were confusing. They said Mewt had gained the confidence to stand up to those bullies...and Ritz was supposed to have stopped dying her natural white hair red. This didn't make any sense to the young man. Why were his friends acting like they hadn't changed from their experiences in the land of Ivalice? What in the world was going on? Did the Gran Grimoire have anything to do with this?

Marche did know about that book that Mewt discovered by sheer luck. The Gran Grimoire was said to allow whoever held it to shape the fabric of reality as they saw fit. Mewt had used it to run away from his problems, dragging Ritz, Marche and Marche's brother Doned along for the ride. However, while he liked joining a clan and experiencing the land of Ivalice, he knew that it was an escapist fantasy. He and his friends had to go home. Unfortunately, each of his friends had their own problems to come to terms with before he was able to convince them to return.

Ritz wanted to stay because she didn't have to dye her hair, which caused her mother to be sad because she wasn't happy. Doned had an illness that made it difficult for him to walk, thus he had to go around in a wheelchair. In Ivalice, he could walk without assistance and he didn't want to give that up, even turning against his brother so he could stay. Mewt used the Grimoire's power to make himself the Prince of Ivalice; with his father in charge of the Judges, the people responsible for upholding the rules of combat when the clans battle and the creature responsible for maintaining the changes Mewt made to reality replacing his dead mother and doing everything in her power to enforce his will.

Marche would admit that he wasn't immune to his problems, but he actually had the least of them compared to his friends and brother. When Ritz tried to point out that he was better in Ivalice too, the most she could think of was the fact that he wasn't called New Kid at school anymore. His problem wasn't able to be solved in Ivalice, since it was only him and Doned that were allowed to cross over. He actually used it to convince his brother to come back with him; by revealing that he was always pushed to the side by their mother because Doned had greater needs.

The blonde young man had struggled hard to get everyone home and they had all improved for the experience...so why had it all reverted?

School happened the same as he remembered. It was time for the class snowball fight. One of the bullies was about to end up on his team, but started complaining because Mewt was on his side and thus would cause them to lose. The bully's friends on the other side of the playground joined in on putting Mewt down, making Marche step forward to defend his friend, causing them to make fun of him for not talking all that often. This caused Ritz to step in and switch places with the bully on his side of the field.

Before the teacher blew the whistle to start the snowball fight, he asked Marche if he knew how. While the young man had learned how to fight in the Land of Ivalice, he still had just recently moved to this city from a place where it hadn't snowed. Deciding not to draw suspicion, Marche stated that this was his first snowball fight. So, the teacher had asked Ritz to show him the basics before the fight began. It seemed like, other than his own mind, everything else was the same. Even down to the words being spoken.

However, Marche remembered not being a very good snowball thrower when he first went through this. With the knowledge of actual battle from Ivalice, even though he didn't feel as strong as his memories told him he'd be, his skill allowed him to hit with throws that hadn't before. Also just as he remembered it, the Bullies ganged up on Mewt, since he was an easy target. With his remembered skills, Marche preempted them with his own snowballs pelting them right in the face. By their expressions, they didn't think he would be that good for his first snowball fight.

Unfortunately for Marche, his memories of the fight didn't prevent one of the bullies from hitting Mewt in the forehead with a snowball that contained a rock in it. This lead to the bullies calling him weak again, while Ritz stepped up to stop them. This time, however, they turned on her and made fun of her hair. Before the young woman could run over there and beat the crap out of the bullies, the teacher stepped in. He declared the snowball fight to be over and sent the bullies inside.

Same as last time, Marche, Ritz and Mewt walked home together after school. However, while Ritz still stated how she detested bullies, the topic actually went to Marche's surprising skill for his first snowball fight.

"Are you sure you haven't had a snowball fight before?" Ritz asked the blonde boy beside her.

"It was my first snowball fight...However, I have gotten good at throwing other things. Perhaps that just transferred over to throwing snowballs." That was true enough. His time training as a Ninja class combatant taught him how to throw all sorts of weaponry. It wasn't that much of a stretch for him to apply that to snowballs.

Anyway, they'd pass by that same scene again; Mewt's dad apologizing to someone before that person walked away. Mewt talked about how his dad wasn't the same since his mom died. His dad spotted him as he got closer, and then talked with his son. After a reminder from Mewt, he walked off to get back to work. From there, the three of them went their separate ways after Mewt mentioned a book he was going to buy and they all agreed to meet at Marche's house.

If Marche's memory could be trusted, then that book Mewt was going to get would take them to Ivalice. He didn't know why he had been sent back to this point in time, but Marche wasn't going to let himself get down about it. Instead, he was going to see just how he could do it better this time around.  
-o-

 _Between Loops_

[SUB-BRANCH: FINAL FANTASY IX]  
[BASELINE COMPILED]  
[SETTING ANCHOR]  
[ANCHOR SET]  
[SUB-BRANCH: ANCHOR: ZIDANE TRIBAL]  
[SUB-BRANCH: INITIALIZATION COMPLETE]  
[ACTIVATE SUB-BRANCH?]  
[YES/NO]

[YES]  
[SUB-BRANCH: ACTIVATED]  
[LOOP ITERATION: START]

1.4 (Opus J)

Zidane was deeply confused. He had finally reunited with his beloved Princess Dagger, and had begun to truly aim for her hand in marriage, when he had awoken in his bed on the Prima Vista in the middle of the night. Needless to say, when Baku popped out wearing his mask once more, he had hit him a little harder than he should have. Then, moments later as the plan they had so long ago flubbed was planned out once more, Zidane began to wonder if HE was the one with the head injury.

On autopilot, he had gone along... and found everything was going the same as before. It was beyond odd. Still, maybe the bomb could be diffused this time.

Or not. As he looked over the wreck of the Prima Vista, he shook his head. The fight Had gone differently, but not enough. But if time could be changed... if the future wasn't set in stone... Zidane nodded to himself. It was time to change the world.

-o-

 _Between Loops_

[SUB-BRANCH: FINAL FANTASY V]  
[BASELINE COMPILED]  
[SETTING ANCHOR]  
[ANCHOR SET]  
[SUB-BRANCH: ANCHOR: BARTZ KLAUSER]  
[SUB-BRANCH: INITIALIZATION COMPLETE]  
[ACTIVATE SUB-BRANCH?]  
[YES/NO]

[YES]  
[SUB-BRANCH: ACTIVATED]  
[LOOP ITERATION: START]

1.5 (Bardic Knowledge)

At first, Bartz wasn't too miffed about having to repeat his adventure against Exdeath. It had been fun becoming known as a wandering hero who just popped up in the nick of time to save the day that one time where he managed to keep half the crystals from breaking (Wind was unfortunately a lost cause, and Water was really hard to stop). But after having explored every version of the world, it had been starting to get somewhat monotonous. At the very least his trusted companion Boko was always with him, even though the Chocobo never acted like he knew what Bartz was saying.

And, after the first few times around, he had noticed that he could use the crystals' gifts despite not getting the shards most of the time. So he had started challenging himself by going through the adventure using a single Job.

He could barely remember the Berserker run. There was a reason he didn't usually touch that Job.

So, after who knew how long, Bartz once again Awoke at his campfire, just a few minutes before Galuf's meteor was due to hit outside of Castle Tycoon. As had almost become habit, he put out the campfire and started for Tycoon with Boko. But what happened when he reached the meteor surprised him. Lenna (who sometimes introduced herself as "Reina," for some reason) wasn't unconscious and being carried off by goblins, but fighting them off with skills he recognized as being from the Monk Job.

Could it be?

"Lenna?" He called, dashing in to one-shot the goblin failing to sneak up on her.

"Bartz?" she gasped. "Please tell me I'm dreaming or something."

"If we're dreaming, then I've been sleeping a long time."

"Wait, you mean-"

"This isn't the first time. Heck, I don't think it's even my hundredth, but don't quote me on that." Bartz grinned widely. "Right now, I'm just glad I'm not alone."

-o-

 _Between Loops_

[SUB-BRANCH: FINAL FANTASY VI]  
[BASELINE COMPILED]  
[SETTING ANCHOR]  
[ANCHOR SET]  
[SUB-BRANCH: ANCHOR: TERRA BRANFORD]  
[SUB-BRANCH: INITIALIZATION COMPLETE]  
[ACTIVATE SUB-BRANCH?]  
[YES/NO]

[YES]  
[SUB-BRANCH: ACTIVATED]  
[LOOP ITERATION: START]

1.6 (OathtoOblivion)

Terra Branford just didn't know what was going on anymore. It had all started when she had suddenly started repeating her life over and over again from when she woke up in Narshe to the defeat of Kefka. Nothing she did seemed to put an end to this. She had initially thought of it being some last laugh of Kefka's, but had discarded that theory for two reasons. First, Kefka wanted the destruction of everything, so he certainly wouldn't have made the whole world loop in time so that it could never be destroyed. She had witnessed that firsthand when she had slipped up during one of these loops and had gotten killed by the mad clown. The next instant, she was in Narshe again.

The second reason it couldn't have been Kefka was that Terra could use every one of the spells she had learned, even after a reset. Why would Kefka want her to get stronger and stronger? She'd already been able to maintain her Esper form for a few hours now, and who knew how long she'd be able to keep it up in the future.

But that didn't really matter right now. No, for some reason, she was 11 again. Or at least, she was pretty sure this was how she looked when she was 11. Her memories from before Kefka had plopped the Slave Crown on her head had always been fuzzy, but for whatever reason, they'd been fluctuating every time time reset.

And now her brain was playing tricks on her, insisting that she'd always lived in this small town known as Pallet. But she'd never heard of a town named Pallet before! It was a small town, with only a few houses and a lab run by a friendly professor. She was a bit uncomfortable with his granddaughter, who her memories claimed had been her rival ever since they were little. What made her uncomfortable was that said granddaughter was a dead ringer for an 11-year-old Celes, with a rather icy personality to boot.

And now the professor had called her to his lab to give her one of his three "Pokemon", creatures which ran all over the planet and could control the elements. She had never heard of these Pokemon before, or the technology used to capture them. She knew that the Empire would have delighted having control of them, so where did they come from? Wasn't magic supposed to be gone? Just what was going on?!

"Ah, Terra, there you are!" the Professor greeted as she walked in.

"H-Hello, Professor Oak," Terra greeted distractedly, trying to reconcile everything in her head. Oak frowned at the look on her face.

"Is everything alright?" he asked in concern.

"Yes, it's just...No, I'm not alright," Terra sighed in defeat. "I don't know what's going on anymore. Everything about this can't be real, but my mind keeps insisting it is. What am I supposed to believe?!"

A dawning look formed on Oak's face. "Terra, I think I know what's going on." At that, Terra turned to look at him with a pleading look on her face. Oak pressed forward. "Tell me, before you Awoke in Pallet, were you living the same life over and over again?" he asked.

Terra blinked in surprise. "Y-Yes! How did you-?"

"Because the same thing is happening to me too. I've been repeating my life over and over again for a while now," Oak confided.

"Then tell me! Just what is going on? Why am I reliving my life?!" Terra demanded. Unconsciously, a Fire spell crackled over her clenched fist. Professor Oak noted that, but pressed forward regardless.

"You see, a long time ago, something destabilized and damaged every single universe out there. The people who run the multiverse found that they could stabilize and start repairing the damage by causing each universe to loop. They started with seven, and have continued to activate Loops ever since then."

"So then, it wasn't anything that I did, or anyone else?" Terra wondered, digesting the information. The Fire spell over her fist quietly died down.

"No. Nobody knows what did it. In each universe, there is someone who serves as the Anchor, the person stabilizing their universe. They're the one who remembers every single Loop," Oak told her.

"I see. I suppose that makes me my universe's Anchor. Are you one as well, Professor?" Terra questioned. Oak shook his head.

"No, I'm just an ordinary Looper. Other people will start Looping as well, but you're the only one who's going to remember every Loop," he said.

"Oh. Then-?" Terra was interrupted from asking what she had wanted to when the door to the Lab was slammed open, causing both of them to jump.

"Gh...Terra, w-what's going on?" It was Celes, who had stumbled in clutching her head.

"Celes? What's wrong?" Terra wondered.

"Oh...my head. I feel like I'm caught between a dream and reality, and I can't tell which one is which. What happened to the Falcon? Where is everyone? And why are we 11?" Celes gasped out in pain.

Professor Oak blinked as something struck him. "Terra, do you remember what I said about other people joining you in the Loops?" he questioned.

"Yes. Why?" Terra wondered, torn between him and Celes.

"I think Celes have might have started to join you. It looks like I'm going to have to explain things to both of you," Oak surmised.

"You know what's going on, Gramps?" Celes queried in pain. "Wait, no...why did I call you-?"

Samuel Oak sighed. "I'll try to explain, Celes. You see-"  
-o-

 _Between Loops_

[SUB-BRANCH: FINAL FANTASY II]  
[BASELINE COMPILED]  
[SETTING ANCHOR]  
[ANCHOR SET]  
[SUB-BRANCH: ANCHOR: FIRION]  
[SUB-BRANCH: INITIALIZATION COMPLETE]  
[ACTIVATE SUB-BRANCH?]  
[YES/NO]

[YES]  
[SUB-BRANCH: ACTIVATED]  
[LOOP ITERATION: START]

1.7 (Gamer A)

Firion was confused. He'd been piloting the airship on a patrol - not that he'd expected to find anything. Barring a few isolated cities like Salamand and Mysidia - and Fynn of course - every settlement on the planet had been wiped out by the the Emperor's Cyclone fortress.

Then suddenly, he was back on the fields outside Fynn, with Maria, Guy, and even Leon, attempting a fighting retreat against four Palemecian Black Knights. The same ones who had cut them all down and left them for dead on the day their hometown was overrun by the combined forces of the Emperor's army and his summoned demons. After everything he'd been through since then, Firion should have been able to turn the tables on them... except that all he had was a simple broadsword, worth nothing against the elite soldiers' armor. Even his body was sluggish and weak as it had been that day.

The thought crossed his mind - he was physically back to his old body, but what of his spells? He reached inward to coax out a black magic attack... And had the right side of his chest ripped through by the enemy horseman's spear before any magic could materialize.

Somehow, Firion, Maria, and Guy repeated their miraculous survival from Firion's memories. (Leon did as well, but they would not be seeing him again for some time.) While they settled into life in the Wild Rose Rebellion, Maria noticed that Firion seemed uncharacteristically distant. She decided to leave him be for the moment - they all had a lot to think about.

Firion especially. He'd quickly determined that the magic he'd picked up the first time had stayed with him. (Although it hadn't been his focus - he preferred physical combat. Still, there had been plenty of spellbooks to go around.) It had to have been real... But on the other hand, it had been a disaster. Seeing the rebel base in Altair bustling again like this reminded him of how much had been destroyed in their desperate struggle. He hadn't wanted to admit it at the time, but while the lands were still green and fertile despite months of monstrous occupation, humanity had been left a step away from extinction by the end of the war. There had to be a way to do it better...

Firion called upon his finely honed reflexes to deflect the spear with his tiny buckler and blast all four Black Knights with a wave of fire, much to Maria's shock (Guy and Leon having been run down already). Perhaps this time - but no, one spell wasn't enough, and the spear twirled around again to tear open his stomach. This should have been a lethal injury, but somehow Minwu's magic pulled him through again.

Firion tried to call on his magic to wipe out the Black knights with the ultimate form of his magic, honed over several lifetimes. Nothing happened - the cost of such an advanced spell was beyond what his civilian body could sustain. Well, back to basics, then...

This was becoming frustrating. He'd taught himself to use a bow and sniped the emperor during his Gladiatorial games, Showed Minwu that he had the power(lessness) of Ultima already, so there was no point killing himself unsealing it. Cut the Boulder that killed Josef in two... and yet no matter what he did, the Emperor still managed to wipe out most of civilization. Was there something he was missing?

-o-

1.8 (Bardic Knowledge)

Odin's fingers tapped softly against his desk as he contemplated this curiosity. Almost all the "Final Fantasy" sub-branches were pseudo-intact, only one of them truly needing something extra to start up, but something strange had happened to the third one.

[SUB-BRANCH: FINAL FANTASY III]  
[ANCHOR CANDIDATES: *ERROR*, ONION KNIGHT; *ERROR*, ONION KNIGHT; *ERROR*, ONION KNIGHT; *ERROR*, ONION KNIGHT]

The first sub-branch had a similar issue with lost names, true, but occasionally, the screen would present a different set of information:

[ANCHOR CANDIDATES: LUNETH, FREELANCER; ARC, FREELANCER; REFIA, FREELANCER; INGUS, FREELANCER]

It would then switch back to the Onion Knights, only to return to the Freelancers not long after. Looking at the baseline itself, there didn't seem to be that much difference between them, save that the Onion Knights had grown up together, while the Freelancers, save Luneth and Arc, barely knew each other near the start of the adventure. Everything past the first part of their journey was even remarkably similar.

It was puzzling, but there wasn't enough room for both sets to exist in the same baseline, or to run two baselines simultaneously on one sub-branch. And while the names had been lost, the Onion Knights were still people, so he couldn't just delete them and make way for the Freelancers.

There had to be some way to reconcile this, but he just couldn't see it yet.

And so Odin continued his brainstorming.

-o-

1.9 (Scorntex)

So, Cloud thought to himself, it had come to this, again. Another fight with Sephiroth, reborn in a new body and ready to try and kick his ass again. But this Loop, Cloud had noticed, something was different. Not with himself, or Sephiroth, or physics, but with one tiny thing.

"You know, if you really want me to despair" he said, with all the practiced ease he could muster, "you could hurt a Chocobo."

Sephiroth stared blankly at him. "A chocobo?" he repeated.

Cloud resisted the urge to facepalm. "That" he nodded in the direction of the large, generally flightless bird casually minding its own business a short distance away. It looked up from whatever it was doing and gave the two warriors a casual look, before going back to what it was doing.

"Very well." Sephiroth eventually said, though not without a small amount of uncertainty. With one swing of his sword, the bird fell. Sephiroth turned, and found his nemesis had vanished.

Then he felt the ground shake. There was a ungodly noise in the air. Faint memories from his life, ones he'd ignored because he hadn't been able to hold on to them in the Lifestream, flared back into life with all the urgency of a fire.

He turned, to see the sky blotted out, as a great horde approached him. His enemies carried no weapon, wielded no magic, had no talents or skills.  
All they had was the raw, savage fury of the Cucco, crying out for vengeance for their fallen sibling.

In seconds, all was a mass of feather and talon and beak and blood and furious clucking.

Cloud, meanwhile, just kept trying to get the best pictures he could of the melee.

-o-

1.10 (Bardic Knowledge)

The Package. It was always the consequence of his return from Mysidia, to be sent to Mist with The Package alongside Kain. Somehow, he couldn't get rid of it, even attempting to deliberately lose it in battle. As much help as Rydia always was against his mind-controlled brother, The Package's contents, one Carnelian Signet, in some circles called the "Bomb Ring," would always turn Mist to ruin.

It might not have the time he tried to keep it sealed with his body and found himself back on the Airship, but he had no way of knowing.

This time, he was gong to take a different approach.

Cecil waited until they entered the Mist Cave before putting his plan into action. "Kain."

"What is it, Cecil?"

"I'm sure you've noticed that the king is acting odd lately."

Kain chuckled darkly. "That's rather an understatement, wouldn't you say?"

Cecil smiled back. "I mean, first ordering us to take the Crystals by force, and now This Package? To a little village in the mountains?"

Kain frowned. "Where are you going with this?"

Cecil struggled for a moment to come up with something to say. "It's just... Why? And what could be in here that's so important?"

"You're not going to open it are you? Against the king's orders?"

"We already agreed he was acting strange. He is not the man that raised me, that took you in when your father died. I need to be certain that whatever's in here isn't going to be something dangerous."

Kain was silent for a few seconds. "I understand."

Inwardly, Cecil sighed in relief. Sometimes Kain could be rather stubborn about completing a mission, like when he never even showed up at Cecil's own wedding and coronation because he was trying to atone for being _mind controlled_ , with only the Mysidians seeing him for seventeen _years_. Cecil shook off his future reminiscing and reached an armoured finger towards the seals on The Package. Opening it, he faked a horrified gasp at the contents.

Kain immediately moved beside him and glanced inside The Package himself. "A ring? What's so terrible about that?"

"This isn't just any kind of ring. This is a Carnelian Signet. I overheard someone talking about it... I don't know how long ago. These things are beyond dangerous." Kain continued to look skeptical. "They're a magical ring with one purpose: when someone bearing one, worn or not, arrives at a particular destination, it releases the monsters sealed inside it, which leads to its other name: the Bomb Ring."

Kain's expression matched his own for a few seconds before turning into a snarl. "And the king wanted us to deliver it to Mist? A peaceful village?" Kain tightened his grip on his lance. "You were right. That man is not the king we knew." Kain spun back to the cave's entrance, malice in his every step.

"Do you really think the two of us could possibly take him out on our own?" asked Cecil, bringing Kain up short. "Even if he's not the renowned warrior he once was, there's still the whole Baronian Army to think about."

"Then what do you suggest?"

"We gather allies. I pitch this Signet into the waters here and we warn the people of Mist about the king's plot, then we travel to every kingdom we can to raise arms against him."

Kain set himself stubbornly for a moment, then sighed. "I suppose you're right. Let's go."

However, things did not go as planned beyond that point. Even without The Package, Rydia's mother tried to stop them, and any peaceful attempt at getting past was doomed to failure. And when entering Mist, they found it already under attack by monsters, though none of them were Bombs. And despite saving as many people as possible, Rydia still recognized them as the killers of her mother's summon and called on Titan.

In the end, the future refused to change.

But Cecil refused to give up. He _would_ find a way to save Mist one day. To keep Rydia from losing her mother. To keep Kain from being brainwashed by Golbez.

He swore it. -

-o-

1.11(Custodator Pacis)

Celes took a look at her long time friend, Terra, all the while trying to keep her face straight.

"...I take that your father this Loop has some Moogle genes this Loop...And somehow managed to resurface in your generation." She said.

"...Kupo." Terra replied.

And Celes finally lost it.

-o-

1.12 (OathtoOblivion)

Caliburn sighed as he rested within the stone he was caught in this Loop. While he enjoyed his travels across the Multiverse, he did feel a bit homesick at times. "I do wonder when I will Loop into home again. It has been some time since I've seen Sonic," he mused to himself. Say what you would about the Blue Hedgehog, but there was never a dull moment around him.

Suddenly, a certain fellow in red and grey landed in front of him, sparking dread within the Looping Sword. "Oh no, not you again," he groaned.

The figure pointed a finger at him. "I've found you, Excalibur!" he cried.

Caliburn, better known in the Loops as the One True Excalibur, sighed. "Gilgamesh, we've gone over this. I'm Looping. You can't add me to your collection unless I will it, and I don't!"

Gilgamesh ignored this. "That's just what you want me to think! Now hold still!" he declared, his hand lancing out for Caliburn's hilt.

"Oh for the love of the Lady of the Lake!" Caliburn groaned, before teleporting, stone and all, away from Gilgamesh's grasp.

This of course caused Gilgamesh to fall over when he overextended himself. "Coward!" Gilgamesh roared as he got back to his feet. "Quit running!"

"Fool!" Caliburn's voice echoed throughout the forest they were in. "I'm a sword! How can I run?! it's physically impossible!" he derided.

"Hey, get back here!" Gilgamesh declared, running in a random direction.  
-o-

1.13 (OathtoOblivion)

Tsukino Usagi was never really one for deep thoughts, even after ruling Crystal Tokyo for who-knows-how-long. And this was before the Loops! Still, something about this one Loop was a bit strange. For one thing, she was in the role of Luna. That wasn't too bad, since it had happened before. But instead of things glitching up and there being an Unawake version of her (one day, they really needed to come up with a proper name for it), there was someone else, and she was freaking out.

"Wh-what?! What's going on?!" her replacement asked in shock. She looked rather shocked at both her location and at herself. There was also an odd look in her eyes. They looked older than she actually-.

 _'Ohhhhh. Awesome! I never get to give the Speech! Everyone usually ends up in Harry's Loop!'_ Usagi squeed to herself.

"I can explain everything," she attempted to say in a profoundly mysterious voice as she sauntered up in her for-this-Loop Mau body. Of course, this was hampered by the fact that it was still _her_ voice, and the random cat sounds she added to it.

Her replacement immediately leaped backwards, and mimed pulling a sword with their right hand. When they came up short, her replacement stared at herself for a while, before saying, "Who are you?!"

"My name is Tsukino Usagi, and like I said, I can explain everything," Usagi mentioned.

"I see...to think that not just my own world, but countless others are suffering through these 'Loops'," her replacement mused.

"It's not really suffering," Usagi hastily corrected. "It's more that this is the only way everything's going to get fixed."

"Hmm...do you know how long that will take?" her replacement asked with piercing eyes.

"Eh...last time I asked, it was about a billion years or so. I forget," Usagi shrugged.

"A billion?!" the other breathed out. "I've already had so many of these 'Loops'. They usually last about 18 years. How many times does 18 go into a billion?" they asked in shock.

"No clue. I'm horrible with math. Ami-chan probably knows though! Or whoever is replacing her this Loop," Usagi decided.

"Replacing?" the other asked in confusion.

"Well, you're in my spot right now, so it's a toss-up between whether you're the only one replacing someone, or if people you know are also replacing the people I know," Usagi explained, before something struck her. "Oh, that's right! I never asked for your name!" she realized.

"...Cecil Harvey," the other finally introduced themselves. Usagi was confused at that.

"Isn't that a guy's name though?" she asked in confusion.

Cecil frowned. "I... _am_ a 'guy'," he pointed out. And that was when Usagi noticed his Adam's Apple...and immediately realized that because he had been replacing her, she had immediately assumed that he was a 'she'. His overall looks didn't help either...

"EEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHH?!"

-o-

1.14 (tovath)

Celes Awoke in both senses of the word. She knew that she wasn't in a baseline loop without even opening her eyes for the smell of wood smoke wafted though the air. Since there was no undertone of burning bodies, it was a nice smell. She opened her eyes to see a forest clearing. A well dressed man was getting ready to cook breakfast.. Fast asleep beside her was young boy who was, Oh crap, her twin brother. She was eight and really needed to check her in loop memories.

Once she had gone over her memories she groaned. This did not look like a fun loop, for three reasons. One she was a princess. Two, her brother, Firion, was some kind of chosen hero. Three, her father had had left to rescue her mother shortly after she had been born. He had not returned. They were now looking for him.

Her 'brother' awoke or possibly Awoke with an impressive display of speed and agility. He jumped up and in a full circle around before Celes had thought of how to react.

"Where are the empire's soldiers?" He asked, still looking around.

"Which Empire?

"What?" A look of complete confusion spread over his face.

"I take it this is your first fused loop." said Celes watching 'her brother's ' antics.

"What is a loop?"

 _A newbie and unknown territory with weird rules. This Loop is off to a_ g _reat start._ "Look, has time has been repeating for you?"

He nodded.

"That is called Looping."

"Ay, you two are doing twin talk again. Impossible to understand."

"Sorry Sancho," said Celes, "Do you think we will find father soon?"

"Don't you worry. We know that your father was turned to stone and we have a staff that can change him back, so we just need to find his statue. We'll find that out at the next town." he said, "Now eat up, so we can get going."

The food was very good and during the hike to the next town she was able to give Firion the Welcome to the Multiverse speech. She started by explaining how the multiverse was broken and the beings in charge of fixing it had set different worlds looping though time so that they didn't slide into oblivion before they were made right. Then she taught him about two Looper specific skills, the Ping, used for telling other Loopers one exists, and making a sub-space pocket. Firion practiced using his subspace pocket on the sword he was carrying and seemed very happy that he would be able to take such a sword as the Zenithian Sword with him.

-o-

AN:

Oath was unable to continue compiling the Final Fantasy Loops that were being created at the thread on Spacebattles, so I took over the job. This chapter is the same as Oath's chapter one, except of 1.14. I thought it would be better to not make your, dear reader, search through this whole site to find the begaining of this story


	2. Chapter 2

Final Fantasy Infinite Loops

Chapter Two

Disclaimer: All of the Final Fantasy characters belong to Square Enix. The original idea for the infinite loops comes from Innortal and later codified by Saphroneth. OathtoOblivion started the Final Fantasy Loops thread and was the first compiler. I think that's every thing...Oh yes, Spacebattles is who hosts the Infinite Loops threads.

-o-

2.1 (OathtoOblivion)

Odin wouldn't admit it to anyone, but he was worried. Every Admin knew that it was important to get every universe they could Looping. Sure some had been spared by the Event, but most of them hadn't. The Loop process stopped that and gave them time to repair the date, but there was a slight problem that he in particular was facing.

Namely the oldest sub-branch for the "Final Fantasy" Loops. To further the tree metaphor, it was branch that all the other sub-branches sprang from, and it was degrading faster then he had expected. The splicing was going well, but even if he forced solely on the Loops that were _needed_ for a full baseline for it, he might run out of time before it degraded. And if it degraded, there was a chance that it would take the whole branch with it.

 _'I won't let that happen'_ He thought grimly, scanning the code for anything he had overlooked, no matter how small. As it turned out he did find something. Namely an alternate Loop start point. It meant that that Loop would be more unstable and prone to crashing then the rest, but it was better then having it degrade into nothingness.

He scanned the data more thoroughly at that point. From the loops that weren't active, it looked like he only needed three more. The minor appearances of yet another yet-to-be-activated Loop could be easily be written out until things progressed further, and the data from one of the Safe Modes was easy enough.

Of the three Spira would be easy, but it seem that the second one was the one with Time Compression in it. Egh...he would have to take a look at that one later. As for the third of course it had to be the third sub-branch. What else would it be?

Odin still hadn't been able to figure out with both the Onion Knights and the Freelancers vying for the baseline spot. He'd thought that he had more time, but evidently he didn't. He searched the data one more time. He sighed at what it said.

Namely when it came to Loop stability the Freelancer j _ust_ edged out the Onion Knights...He had no more options at this point. If he just had more time-!

"Forgive me Onion Knights." Odin whispered. Just as he started the process to install the Freelancers and damn the Onion Knights to the annals of what could have been, one of the other terminals chirped for his attention. He turned to look at it and was surprised at what he found there.

...Maybe he did have anther option after all, he decided streaming the Onion Knights data over to that other terminal. A terminal that showed one solitary Onion Knight. One that was Unique to the sub-branch but called data from the one that he was working on.

-o-

2.2 (Sirkald)

This was pretty nice, Ranma thought. It had been a long (long, long, long) while since any new Loops had come online, and as starved for variety as any veteran Looper was, visiting a new place was always a treat.

The Loop in question was being menaced by some kind of evil megacorp called Shinra and a long-haired prettyboy named Sephiroth. He hadn't really been paying attention when the Anchor had explained it. Still, there was evil to punch in a gloriously unfamiliar world, so he was all for it!

Even if he did have to be replacing Cloud's girlfriend.

They were exploring an arctic crater to kill prettyboy when Cloud stopped dead in his tracks.

"What's wrong?" unAwake Cid asked.

Cloud pointed ahead toward a short monster with a knife and a lantern. "Tonberry. We'll have to find our way around."

"Oh, come on," Ranma said. "Don't be a wimp. How can we expect to kill whatshisname if we run from one little monster?"

Said monster heard the argument and waddled closer before raising his lantern. "Oh shi-" Cloud said before something hit Ranma andSTACKOVERFLOWERRORERRORERROR-

When he woke up with tits the size of watermelons he cursed. What the hell was that thing?

-o-

2.3 (cthulhu fartagn)

[SUB-BRANCH: FINAL FANTASY III]  
[BASELINE COMPILED]  
[SETTING ANCHOR]  
[ANCHOR SET]  
[SUB-BRANCH: ANCHOR: LUNETH]  
[SUB-BRANCH: INITIALIZATION COMPLETE]  
[ACTIVATE SUB-BRANCH?]  
[YES/NO]

[YES]  
[SUB-BRANCH: ACTIVATED]  
[LOOP ITERATION: START]

Luneth grinned, staring upwards, at the light given off from the crystals.

"A new dawn huh?", he chuckled gently. "alright, I can live with tha-"

Luneth stumbled, and fell to one knee, looking around.

"what the?! What just happened?! This, this is the wind crystals cave! How did I get here?"

Frowning, he stood up and dusted his pants off.

"and why am I in my freelancer outfit?"

Luneth leaned against the railing of the enterprise, staring at the sea of darkness below. Everything was back to the way It had been before he and the other warriors had saved the world. Medusa has been breaking the ancients tower. The Nepto Dragon's eye had been missing, causing it to terrorize the vikings. Hein had been terrorizing king Argus's subjects. And looking down at the sea of darkness, Garuda, Goldor, and Xande were probably frozen beneath it. Raising his head, and looking to the north, he stared into the horizon, looking for Aria's crashed ship.

"Arc, I think I saw something to the north-east. Lets head that way."

Luneth slowly nocked an arrow in his bow, as Aria walked towards the water temples alter.

"Luneth? Is something wrong?" Refia said, in a gentle whisper.

"Something else is here. Some sort of monster? I think it going to attack her."

Aria stood slowly, and began to turn around. Luneth raised his bow and let an arrow fly, just as Kraken launched himself off the wall, heading directly towards Aria.

"Aria! Move!" Ignus barks out, drawing his sword as he does.

The arrow impacts on the back of Krakens head, causing him to jerk his head around, losing sight of Aria. A split second later, Arc's Thunderega and Refia's Areoga slam into his face, sending him even further off course.

Ignus runs towards Aria's crouched form, yanking her to her feet, and pulling her away from the monster.

 _Nice try monster. Ambushes only work when people don't know they're coming._

-o-

2.4 (Bardic Knowledge)

Cecil had tried being sneaky, but the railroad Loops he kept getting (it didn't happen all the time, just enough to be annoying) were starting to become aggravating. So this time he was going to be direct. Almost immediately after being brought in front of "King" Cagnazzo, he drew his sword.

"I've had enough of this." Everyone in the throne room looked at Cecil in surprise, the guardsmen starting to draw their own weapons. However, instead of brandishing the weapon at any of them, he pointed the Dark Sword in the air before swapping it with the Crystal Sword in his pocket. A brief moment of concentration and his Dark Knight armor also switched places with his Paladin gear in a bright flash of light."I am Cecil Harvey, Captain of the Red Wings, son of KluYa of the Lunarians and ward of King Baron. I know not when your treachery occurred, Cagnazzo, Archfiend of Water, but it ends here!" _Don't say it, don't say it, don't say it..._ "In the name of the moon, I will punish you!" _Dammit!_

-o-

2.5 (tovath)

Celes walked quickly though the halls of the Magitek Research Center. Behind her walked two people Hopefully their admittedly slightly crazy plan would not fall apart in the next few minutes. She strode up to captain in charge of security for this part of the Center.

"Captain, you need to clear all your men out of the area." she said with no trace of emotion in her voice.

"What? I was given no orders-"

"You are being given them now. Get you men out. They are to not return for two hours." Celes glared at him coldly, if this didn't work she would have to kill him.

He gulped then brought his closed hand to his chest in a salute. "Yes, general."

As the soldiers left she could hear some of them whisper "Good luck" and "Don't die" to the two people dressed in soldiers armor standing near her. After the last of them had been gone for a minute Locke and Terra took off their helmets.

"I'm impressed." said Locke.

"Don't be, they have always been scared of me." Celes shook her head. "We should have enough time, but we can't waste any." Celes headed over to the master controls and slowly pulled the level to release the espers from the magic draining tanks. It seemed that she had done everything right. None of them looked like they were about to become Magicite, although some barely had the strength to stand. She went to stand guard while Terra and Locke got them ready to go. Someone needed to and Celes didn't think she could face them right now, especially Shiva. After all the reason she had magic was that it had been torn out of one of them.

The light of escape talisman activating filled the room. It was a good thing that Terra had picked those up when she looped to another world. Celes had hoped that they wouldn't have to use the backup plan, but none of the espers had looked like they get to Cid's rail cart escape route. Now for her own escape, she needed to get outside.

The door opened before she got her hand on it.

"What are you doing here Kefka? Shouldn't you still be in Figaro."

"Oh, but I heard so many interesting stories about a young woman matching your description in Narshe just after we lost that unit."

"Really, I've heard there is an Opera singer who looks like me."

"It's not an Opera singer standing here. I will enjoy watching you die a traitor's death."

xxx

Locke was worrying. The Falcon was all ready to go, but Celes hadn't come yet. Part of him wanted to run off and find out what happened to her, but he knew of too many heists that had failed for just that exact reason. Suddenly there was a whooshing sound and Celes fell out of the sky. She landed on one knee, but then immediately collapsed. Her clothes were all bloody and burned in places.

"Are you ok?" he asked as he started a cure spell.

"Downside of the Zoom spell is that it can only be used outside."

-o-

2.6 (FTKnight)

When Terra was given the Welcome to the Multiverse speech, she had been warned that on occasion things would get very odd, but that did nothing to prepare her for the sight of Kefka stuck in an giant Hampster ball, as a Giant Skeleton, wearing a Kilt, prepared to whack the ball with an appropriately sized Sand Wedge.

she tries to find something to say but just opens and closes her mouth as the Giant lets out a savage yell, which was probable 'Four", and sends Kefka Flying.

" ooooh, he sliced it. " commented one of the watching guards.

Terra finally closes her mouth and decides to find something strong to drink.

-o-

2.7 (OathtoOblivion)

"And if we're in the same Loop, I can borrow the weapons for use, just in case?" Gilgamesh asked.

"Yeah, yeah, sure. Anything in the museum, you can borrow, just as long as you bring stuff to put on display," Ruby waved him off, trying to prop up a specific exhibit.

"Excellent! Be sure to save an extra-large exhibit for Excalibur!" Gilgamesh declared, before rushing off in search of the elusive sword. Ruby's grin became slightly fixed as she turned to the specific sword beside her. Said sword proceeded to open his eyes.

"Thank you very kindly for not telling him I was here, Lady Ruby," Caliburn sighed wearily.

"Don't mention it. I'll tell Sonic I saw you."

"Make sure to tell him not to slack off on his training just because I'm not there to lecture him. It would be unbecoming of the Knight of the Wind, not to mention one chosen as King Arthur, to be a horrid swordsman. Swordshog in his case, I suppose."

-o-

 _Between Loops_

(OathtoOblivion)

Odin let out a sigh of relief as he looked over the coding for the eighth main sub-branch of his larger assignment. Upon first glance, that Time Compression seemed like a major problem on par with things like...well, it was better to leave certain things unsaid. But it looked like he was worried for nothing. He had set it up so that the Time Compression was simply a parallel universe intrinsically tied to the main universe of the sub-branch. And while the sub-branch itself had a Stable Time Loop involved, that was easily covered by the Oubourous Patch. All that was left was to load it up.

[SUB-BRANCH: "FINAL FANTASY VIII"]  
[BASELINE COMPILED]  
[SETTING ANCHOR]  
[ANCHOR SET]  
[SUB-BRANCH ANCHOR: SQUALL LEONHART]  
[SUB-BRANCH INITIALIZATION COMPLETE]  
[ACTIVATE SUB-BRANCH?]  
[YES/NO]

Odin nodded, hitting the Enter key.

[YES]  
[SUB-BRANCH ACTIVATED]  
[LOOP ITERATION START]

2.8 (Bardic Knowledge)

At first, Squall almost thought that he had been found after, apparently, falling through time and then placed in Balamb Garden's hospital. He was quickly disabused of this notion when he felt the pain emanating from his scar. This was important because the scar may have ached for a while after their spar/duel, but it quickly faded until the only reason he occasionally remembered its existence was when he had to scratch his nose or forehead.

Not long after the pain hit him, Dr. Kadowaki entered the room and, just like he remembered, performed her check-up questions, then called for Quistis.

 _Is this a consequence of Time Compression?_ Squall wondered. He contemplated the question as he followed Quistis down the hall.

"Squall, is there something on your mind?" she asked.

"...Yeah."

"Not rea- Wait, what?" Quistis had been all set to mock his usual response, so a different answer threw her for a second. She sighed. "And here I thought I was starting to understand you."

Squall felt a small smirk form on his face as he parroted his old self, "I'm more complex than you think."

Quistis smiled again, this sounded more like Squall. "Then tell me. Tell me more about yourself."

The smirk slipped as Squall contemplated this. He knew, now, that Quistis, Zell, Seifer, Selphie, Irvine, Ellone, and himself all grew up together in the same orphanage. _Did the GFs really cause that much memory loss? Then what would happen if he started using them now?_ Shaking off the deep thoughts for a moment, he replied. "It might sound a little odd. After class, could we see the headmaster?"

Quistis was caught off guard once again. Had that blow to the head caused Squall's personality to change? She opened her mouth to reply, but, in an incredibly un-Squall-like action, he interrupted her!

"I know I haven't made it to the Fire Cavern yet, but this is important." He glanced around as they got on the elevator. "And I know this is going to sound really strange, but we need to have that talk without any of the Garden Faculty around."

 _Very strange indeed,_ agreed Quistis, silently. "I'll see what I can do. As a teacher I can send e-mails to the headmaster, and he should hopefully get back to me before class ends."

Squall nodded. "Thanks."

-o-

2.9 (Bardic Knowledge)

Zidane Awoke confused. He had started getting used to finding himself back on the _Prima Vista_ just before they reached Alexandria, and suddenly he was walking in through some guy's back door in a snow-covered town.

"Took you long enough!" said the man in question. "How goes the robbing and plundering trade?"

Zidane processed this – apparently the guy knew him – before replying, "It's been better. Now, why am I here?"

"Yeah, there's a girl I'd like you to meet."

Zidane felt a grin form, "Oh, really? Is she pretty?" Yeah, he had Dagger, but he could still look, couldn't he?

The man gave him the stink-eye. "There's no time for your womanizing ways! She's being pursued by Imperial troops as we speak! This town is no match for the Empire. Our independence can only be assured if we join forces with the Returners, an underground resistance movement. I sent her through the mines, if you hurry up you'll be able to reach her before they do."

Zidane shrugged. He still wasn't entirely sure what was going on, but he'd play along for now. "Got it." But before he could head out the door, the man said something more.

"When you get her, head for Figaro and talk to the king."

Zidane nodded and headed out the door. He quickly and stealthily made his way across the bridge to the mine shaft, men in brown uniforms and spike-topped helmets milling below him. Presumably the Imperial Troops the guy mentioned.

Once in the mine proper, he saw a hole in the ground that had pebbles still clattering off it. New enough that this mystery girl might have fallen down it. And if she hadn't, he could climb back up and keep searching. Fortunately, she was there, albeit unconscious, and she actually was rather pretty, though the green hair seemed a little odd. Unfortunately, the soldiers managed to find them right after he got there. But fortune favored him once more, as a small army of Moogles showed up out of nowhere to help him.

Though none of the Moogles said anything to him other than "kupo," reminding him of Eiko's Moogle friend Mog (who was also the eidolon Maduin), they routed the soldiers with little issue, helped along by Zidane himself taking out the commanding officer almost immediately. Once the rest of the soldiers were either unconscious, dead, or had fled, he thanked the Moogles for their help and carried the still out girl through the mines, a task made slightly difficult by her being half again as tall as he was.

After wandering for a moment, he found a switch that opened a secret passage out to the entrance of the town, just in time for the girl to wake up.

"Hey, there sleepy-head, you doin' alright?"

She looked at him blearily, then looked around them. "You... Saved me?"

"Of course! Though, I did get a bit of help from some Moogles."

Standing slowly, the girl put her hand on her head, "I can't remember anything... past or present..."

"Amnesia, huh? Well don't worry, I'll stick with you until your memory comes back. I'm Zidane by the way, Zidane Tribal."

"Terra..."

"Come on, Terra, we're headed to Figaro" _Wherever that is_ "the old man said we could get help there."

Despite not knowing the geography of the place he found himself in, Zidane surprised himself in finding a castle in the desert to not only be familiar, but recognized it as Figaro Castle. Turning that over in his head while he and Terra fought off some wild monsters, he noticed that there were memories not his in there, but they all seemed like something he would do. Mostly. They even told him that this girl was known as a witch in service to the Gestahlian Empire who could lay waste to entire cities without remorse.

Which was completely at odds with how she was acting now. Honestly, she kinda made him think of Vivi mixed with a bit of Dagger.

At Figaro Castle proper, they were introduced to King Edgar Figaro, whom Zidane's pre-Awakening self had apparently met in the past. They were even supposed to be good friends, often talking about the finer points of the ladies of Figaro when they met up. Their meeting this time, however, was interrupted by an Imperial visitor, a clownish-looking man named Kefka.

After spending a few hours there exploring (and looting unattended chests), they rested in a guest room. They were suddenly awoken later by a man with a trio of Chocobos, telling them to get ready to flee. Zidane almost didn't want to, considering the castle seemed to be _on fire._ But he was assured that the people of Figaro Castle were in no danger, and just as they started to ride away, joined by Edgar, the castle sunk into the sands on command, which Zidane thought was pretty nifty.

After defeating a pair of Magitech Armour Knights, with assistance from Terra's magic (Edgar flipped out for a moment, but Zidane's no-big-deal approach baffled him into being calm again), they made their way through a cave to South Figaro.

It struck Zidane as a little odd that a castle's town would be on the other side of a mountain range, but this wasn't his world, so he wasn't going to pass judgment.

After some time in South Figaro (performing further looting), they headed north Mt. Koltz, which was the location of the Returner base. According to these new memories, the Returners were a rebel organization fighting against the Gestahlian Empire's world conquest.

Which, honestly, sounded right up Zidane's alley.

On the mountain, they were joined by Edgar's brother, Sabin. Privately, Zidane agreed with Terra's assessment of the young man as a "body builder who strayed from his gym."

It was at the Returner hideout that Zidane finally got an answer for what was happening. As it turned out, the Returners were having a visit from their "inside man," a turncoat in the Empire's ranks. Her name, however, was Celes Chere, one of the Empire's top generals.

And as soon as she saw him, she knew he wasn't supposed to be there.

"Feeling a bit Loopy?" she asked, as soon as she could get a moment with him.

"Loopy? That seems a bit rude to ask, don't you think?" Zidane replied, raising an eyebrow.

Her brow furrowed cutely. "Um, let me try again. Has time been repeating for you lately?"

Zidane quickly set down the drink he'd been carrying and turned to her. "You know about that?"

Celes nodded. "Judging by how Terra isn't Awake, I'm going to hazard that you're the Anchor for your world, too. I think I still have the notes from when Professor Oak gave us the 'Welcome to the Multiverse' speech..."

-o-

2.10 (Gamerteen13)

[SUB-BRANCH: FINAL FANTASY X]  
[BASELINE COMPILED]  
[SETTING ANCHOR]  
[ANCHOR SET]  
[SUB-BRANCH: ANCHOR: YUNA]  
[SUB-BRANCH: INITIALIZATION COMPLETE]  
[ACTIVATE SUB-BRANCH?]  
[YES/NO]

[YES]  
[SUB-BRANCH: ACTIVATED]  
[LOOP ITERATION: START]

Yuna's eyes had opened with the dawn. She had begun her day like any other, get out of bed, dust off her clothes, and then hop down to get some breakfast from Barkeep. Or at least, that had been her intentions.

She nearly fell out of her bed onto the polished temple laminate when it turned out she wasn't in the Fahrenheit anymore, and dusting off her clothes informed her she was wearing a dress she hadn't so much as touched since she had joined the Gullwings. The sound of steps had reached her ears as she smoothed out the wrinkles with a frown. _'This thing has so many memories attached to it. Why was I wearing it?'_

A voice called out from the doorway, one she recognized as a nun from Besaid's temple. "Lady Yuna." she asked, "Are you okay? I heard a noise and was worried." Yuna turned and smiled at the woman, "I'm alright."

The nun smiled back in return, "That's good to hear, it would be a shame if you got hurt today of all days!" Yuna blinked in confusion. Was there something important going on today? She surely didn't recall. The nun made to leave, but before she left she said "You should get something to eat, the Cloister of Trials awaits you whenever you're ready."

Something about that statement made Yuna grow unnerved.

It wouldn't be until she was on the elevator leading down to the Chamber of the Fayth that Yuna truly realized that something was amiss. It had begun with minor details. A few people she knew had joined up with the Youth League were praying before the statues of the High Summoners; how everyone called her 'Lady Yuna', and not a single 'High Summoner Yuna'; how no matter _how much_ she scrounged that room, she couldn't find her Garment Grid, or her rather heavy coinpurse. These small thoughts, minor discrepancies left a niggling in the back of her mind as she moved through the Cloister with the ease of one who had completed it twice before.

When she had a quiet moment, between the finishing of the simple puzzle that was Besaid's Cloister of Trials, one that she swore was locked in a permanently completed state after the Youth League claimed the temple as their own, and her reaching her destination that she was able to think back, pouring over her memories to try finding out what happened. In short order, she had found it.

The night before, she had been on the Fahrenheit with Tidus, cheerfully telling him about her journey with the Gullwings.

The day before, a day that was nearly three years ago, she had completed her training as a summoner, and her true graduation into a summoner had been delayed by one day when Wakka and Lulu took her to celebrate.

A suspicion grew in her mind, one she felt was impossible... but had she not given credence to the thought when Sir Jecht mentioned it? When Tidus himself had mentioned it? When the Chamber of the Fayth opened to her presence, and the Fayth, thrice slain, long since sent appeared as she entered, the suspicion became a near-certainty.

She had gone back in time.

Though initially thrilled with the idea of having gone back in time, Yuna realized that the amount of possibilities that could come from it, both the good and the bad, were innumerable. Mention something to the wrong person and run the risk of being tried for treason. Come too late or too early for an event, and the window of opportunity would be missed. This realization had led to fear, fear of changing the present, out of fear of making the future worse. And so, she let it happen. But she soon learned another lesson, repeating events the same way twice was difficult when you had gained an additional three years of life and skills since then.

She bided her time, waiting an extra three hours in the Chamber of the Fayth to walk out, so that Tidus would be there when she fell. The fall was still genuine, as she had actually sat so awkwardly for so long that her legs were thoroughly asleep. Unlike before, where she merely stumbled down the stairs but was able to walk, she had to get Wakka and Lulu's help to actually reach the elevator until her legs worked again.

When Sin attacked Kilika, she said nothing she hadn't said before, offering to perform the Sending and stepping out onto the waters to do so, but Lenne's touch from her time as a Songstress meant it had a little more flair to it than it had previously. Lulu and Wakka joked at her about 'showing off', and Tidus was even more amazed than before. That was a change she truly didn't mind.

When it came time for her to be kidnapped by the Al Bhed Psyches, she let it happen. When it came time to break out, she _may_ have started throwing insults in Al Bhed before clubbing them over the head with a pipe. Somehow, she managed to get out of the ship faster this time around and was able to summon Valefor to help battle the Oblitzerator.

She still marveled at the sheer power of Anima, and a lingering feeling in her heart had reminded her that she, too, had once held that power. But when she learned the Besaid Aurochs had _won_ against the Luca Goers, it felt like there was a pit in her stomach. Something had changed, and she could only assume it was by her doing. The fear that had been building up, the nervousness and panic was about to reach a boiling point. She _had_ to tell someone, but who?

After a few moments of thought, the answer became apparent. Only one person she knew might believe that she time traveled, should he prompt her, while also having the wisdom to offer advice. It was this realization that led to her current situation.

Sir Auron mulled over the scenario Yuna had given him, and said "Every day is another chapter in your story, every event is written in stone. It cannot be changed, no matter how hard you might wish it to." he chuckled, "So consider yourself lucky. Few, if any people find the opportunity to rewrite it."

"Yuna." he said as he prepared to leave the room, "Never forget that this is your story. Your fate is in your hands, and we, your Guardians, will be by your side every step of the way." those words spoken, Auron left.

Yuna smiled as Auron left. _'How could I forget to trust my friends? My Guardians?'_ and the smile would stay on her face for the rest of the day.

Until the Chocobo Eater knocked half their group into the chasm below.

"Well this is just _disasteriffic._ " she grumbled from her spot on the ground.

Over Yuna's redone journey, she had learned much about cause and effect. A wide number of possibilities could be done in a variety of ways to reach new outcomes. Throwing a fragmentation grenade at Sinspawn Gui as the battle started to weaken its armor resulted in a shift in the battle party when it came time to fight it again; Sir Auron was unable to help, leaving Kimahri and Lulu to offer aid instead. Fighting to get out of her barrier when entrapped in the Extractor led to Rikku being visibly wounded when they caught up to her, a change she didn't understand until Rikku mentioned she was piloting the Extractor as they escaped Home. But a change she had assumed to be simple, merely removing a thorn from her side, had led to her stepping out of the Chamber of the Fayth in Bevelle to stare down the barrels of multiple rifles in a room filled with pyreflies.

It was an act she questioned doing for the past three years of her life. After they killed Seymour the first time, she had made to Send him. Trommel demanded she stop, and she obeyed, leading to the slaughter of the Al Bhed, Ronso, and her forced near-marriage.  
The thinking behind it was simple, "If I Send him, surely I can keep that from happening." but as it had turned out, that may have been a bad idea.

As was the case the first time around, the Guado had chased them to Lake Macalania, summoned a Wendigo, and then it blew up the lake surface; landing her and her Guardians on the back of Sin, and eventually at the island of Bikanel. The Al Bhed found her before her Guardians had, and took her to the Summoner's Sanctum. Eventually, her Guardians came and rescued her, convincing Cid to allow them the use of the Airship to take them back to the continent. He took it one step further, dropping them off at Bevelle, her next stop.

To her sheer surprise, she had to do battle with Evrae, the Guardian Wyrm of Bevelle. Her Guardians didn't mention that they had to battle Bevelle's defender in order to rescue her. Between her Aeons, Guardians, and Cid's periodic missile barrage, they had defeated it successfully, and were deposited without fanfare near the center of Bevelle.

The streets were silent as her and her Guardians walked through the town, through the temples, until they finally reached the Cloister of Trials. Another puzzle down, another Aeon gained. Or... so she had thought.  
The problem with the Chamber of the Fayth is that it is pretty much soundproof, the only way sound can get in is if the door is open, so that the summoner might pray without distraction or interruption. Tidus had come in last time, offering help she was glad to take to get out. But here, he had not. When she stepped out, he discovered it wasn't that he did not, it was that he could not.

The dead don't make good Guardians, after all. Sir Auron notwithstanding.

Instead of the six Guardians she acquired over her journey standing before her, only a quartet of Bevelle riflemen stood before her. Another quartet came to back them up, and as they dropped to one knee to prepare to fire, her mind flashed back to her memories of Lenne dying in the exact same way.  
Eight shots erupted in the room, four found their mark in her torso, but unlike when it happened to Lenne, when she fell from her wounds and their pain, she didn't see the face of her beloved. All she saw were pyreflies, their source obvious to her, and their meaning equally blatant.  
 _'I failed.'_ ran through her mind as her eyes shut, tears trickling down her face.  
In her final moments, as life left her, she sent up a prayer, hoping that- though she was doomed to be trapped down here until properly Sent, or until she became a Fiend, her Guardians wouldn't have to suffer the same fate.

As fast as the pain from the bullets came, it had gone. And as she opened her eyes, all she could think of was _'The Farplane looks suspiciously like the temple in Besaid.'_

-o-

2.11 (tovath)

Firion drew the Zenithian Sword and held it high. Now was the time to see if his reasoning was correct.

"What are you doing?" Yelled the, hopefully, false princess.

He sent forth a Disrupting Wave from the sword. "Getting rid of any illusions that exist." The room shimmered as a light swept through it. Once it was gone everyone could see that the person in in front of them was not the princess, but a loathsome Naga Queen.

"How?!" cried out Cid.

Firion ignored the reactions of his friends. "Where is the real princess?"

"In the hands of the Emperor, mortal fool."

"She will not stay in his hands." yelled Guy.

"What you think you are going to rescue her?"the Naga Queen smiled showing all of her teeth. "You won't even leave this room alive."

The fight was not easy, but Firion had plenty of practice fighting her, so soon enough he had separated her head from her neck.

"We will have to to tell the king of our failure to save his daughter." said Maria.

Firion nodded. "At least we are not bringing an enemy into our base." One that Firion well knew would kill the king.

-o-

2.12 (Gamer A)

A SeeD's exceptional powers and combat skills were largely dependent on Guardian Forces: mystical entities which inhabited a part of the user's brain and mind and granted them the ability to draw out and use Para-magic, in several ways. Squall had also seen situations where the mechanics of this relationship were twisted: for instance, Sorceress Adel "Junctioning" another Sorceress, leaving poor Rinoa melded into her chest. Or Ultimecia pulling Squall's own ideal of an ultimate GF from his mind, manifesting it into reality, then junctioning _herself_ to _it_ , instead of vice versa, creating a slightly horrific mixture of their individual appearances.

Squall looked behind himself at the thundersnake Quetzelcotl's head and neck protruding from his spine, while a conspicuously blue-skinned Quistis watched him curiously.

It was only a matter of time before the anchor ended up in a world where such things were the rule rather than the exception. This was going to suck...

-o-

2.13 (Custodator Pacis)

"Cloud."

"Yes, Tifa?"

"Why are you a Chocobo?" She deadpanned.

"...I'm more concerned on why no one in my cadet's days noticed me I'm a Chocobo before," Cloud said, as he adjusted his Buster sword with his wing.

-o-

2.14 (tovath)

Maduin blinked. His whole body felt odd and his memories seemed off. He couldn't concentrate with his fur itching so much. He seemed to remember how to get rid of that problem at least. He shifted into his normal form.

"Mog! What happened?" Yelled a little girl that one set of memories said was named Eiko as a whole bunch of moogles ran for cover.

Maduin asked the the world at large"What is going on?!" He was even more confused now.

He did get a reply of sorts from the girl next to him "I wanta know that. I was at Lindblum and Hilda was going ta take me shopping tomorrow and... and now I'm back here and ..." she burst into tears.

Maduin knelt down by the crying girl and put a hand on her shoulder. "My memories are all messed up too. I don't know what is going on, but we will find out."

Eiko looked up tears still in her eyes, "How?"

Maduin wasn't sure himself, but wasn't doing to say that. So instead he started talking about how he had two sets of memories in his head. One was of Eiko's grandfather asking him to protect her and agreeing to take moogle form to do that. (He wished he had remembered that sooner) and the other set was of his daughter Terra. Then he asked her to tell him about her memories. As they talked the moogles returned. One of them asked "Is all that true, kupo?"

"Of course, it is Mocha." said Eiko, "We'll go find Zidane and he will help us find Maduin's daughter." Eiko turned back to Maduin. "Hey do you think Terra could be my big sister? I mean you are here now and um..."

"We will have to ask her, but I'm sure she would be delighted." Maduin was amazed at how fast this girl's emotions could change. "First we will have to head to the Black Mage Village that you mentioned. They should have something to travel in there." _And we can find out if her memories, at least are correct._

xxx

Zidane had decided to go for a baseline loop until they encountered Kuja at the Lifa Tree. He had a great prank he could hardly wait to pull. First though they had to get though Conde Petie, which meant that he had to find that priest guy. He knew from past experience that if he tried to tell Dagger about the fact that they had to go though a marriage ceremony without talking to him, things would get a bit dicey.

There was someone talking with the priest. Someone who he had last seen briefly when he had looped into Celes' world. "Maduin?"

The big horned man turned to look at hem. "You know me?"

"Yah. You're Terra's dad." Zidane was going to say something about how weird this Looping business was but before he could Maduin asked him urgently "Do you know where she is?"

"Oh boy, this is going to take awhile to explain. You see there is this giant tree called Yggdrasil that supports the multiverse


	3. Chapter 3

Final Fantasy Infinite Loops

Chapter Three

Disclaimer: All of the Final Fantasy characters belong to Square Enix. The original idea for the infinite loops comes from Innortal and later codified by Saphroneth. OathtoOblivion started the Final Fantasy Loops thread and was the first compiler. I think that's every thing...Oh yes Spacebattles is who hosts the Infinite Loops threads.

-o-

3.1

Celes stared. Terra honestly couldn't blame her. If she could, she'd stare too.

"Terra," Celes said slowly, "why is your Esper form this Loop a bee?"

Terra attempted to answer her, but all that came out was a "Bzzzz!" Feeling slightly irked, she undid the Trance state to return to human form.

"I have no idea. Father is the same as ever this Loop," she admitted.

"Then why was-?"

"I don't know! ...Although, Cecil and Cloud mentioned that they were running into bees an increasingly improbable amount of times," Terra remembered.

"What, so Yggdrasil has some kind of _Bee Virus_ or something?" Celes asked incredulously.

"What else makes sense?

-o-

3.2 [Tovath]

Leviathan burst out of the sea, but instead of swallowing their ship as he always had before, he said "Last time I ate you I got a big case of indigestion."

"Last time?" asked Firion, "Is time repeating for you?" He had been hoping to have this conversation with Maria or Guy, not a big boat eating monster.

"Yes, but I also have memories from other places. In one I was the king of the eidolons. In another I was imprisoned near a giant tree. A young woman freed me in hopes of saving her mother." He shook his head, almost capsizing the ship. "Sorry."

"Firion, what is going on?" Maria's voice quavered as she asked this.

Firion sighed "This is going to take some explaining..."

-o-

3.3 (Gamer A)

Every now and then, the loops could throw Cloud a curveball without needing to mix in other worlds. He'd woken up very late this time - to the point that Sephiroth was already defeated. A contributing factor to this was that the final confrontation had taken place a few weeks ahead of schedule.

And how had that happened? Well, the key difference was how his team hadn't left the northern crater with Shinra after Cloud gave Sephiroth the Black Materia and the WEAPONs were unleashed. Tifa, Barret, Nanaki, Cait Sith, and Cid had all plunged into the Lifestream with their compromised leader; where they watched as Cloud pieced together his mind. And then they'd all continued further into the lifestream right to Sephiroth and defeated him before being spit back out.

It was all surprisingly _plausible_ (although Aerith had to be responsible for how the Lifestream hadn't reduced them all to comatose vegetables). But it had also left a lot of loose ends. Not just that they had skipped over recruiting Yuffie and Vincent. More importantly Shinra wasn't nearly as crippled and panicked as they should have been - although the WEAPONs might change that as they were _all_ still active and rampaging.

"So what should we do now?" Tifa asked.

"What else?" Cloud responded, "We protect what we can, and fight who we have to."

"Fuck, gonna be a long walk back to the Tiny Bronco..." Cid commented.

-o-

3.4 [Tovath]

Cecil thought over the loop so far, as he waited in the hall. There hadn't been any major problems this loop. He had been able to take care of Zemus fairly quickly and hopefully the way he took care of the events a few months ago would make the next part of the loop easier.

But today was not the time for such thoughts. Today was a very special day. One that he would never get tired of no matter how many times it happened.

The midwife opened the door and bustled up. She was the best midwife in Baron and had picked up the ability that many healers had of being able to boss anyone, even the King, around. "Congratulations Sire, Queen Rosa has just given birth to a healthy boy."

Even though he had known that this was going to happen, he couldn't help but smile. The midwife practically pushed him through the door that she had refused to let him though moments before.

Rosa looked tired, but happy. After a few minutes he was allowed to hold his son. "Hello Ceodore."

-o-

3.5 [tovath]

Lenna had an idea of how to simplify getting use of the pirate ship at the beginning of their Loop. "We will just have to ask the pirates if we can borrow their ship," said Lenna.

"That's a crazy idea." yelled Galuf, who was not Awake.

"Quiet down," said Bartz, who she had already told him of her plan. "It's a better idea than trying to steal the thing."

Galuf continued in a lower tone, "So you are suggesting that we just waltz in there -"

"No I will go in by myself." Lenna said with a puckish grin, "You can wait here."

Lenna walked around the sleeping pirates and headed to the captain's quarters, where her unknowing sister, Faris was. The captain's quarters were quite spare, just a sea chest, a bed and an awake Faris, who had her sword drawn.

Lenna quickly pulled out her pendent and started talking before Faris started stabbing. "I was wondering if you recognized this pendent."

"Aye, I have one just like it."

"Then you are my sister." said Lenna. "Will you help me save our father?"

xxx

The pirate ship headed off to the Wind Shrine with Galuf still wondering how this had happened.

-o-

3.6 [Drakohahn]

When Kira Yamato looped into the Warring Triad Branch of Final Fantasy, it was always a toss-up to see if he replaced Terra, Celes or just entered as himself. Currently, he had replaced Celes after Kefka had disrupted the Warring Triad statues.

It really stung to come in when the only thing to do was pick up the pieces before confronting the monster who did the deed.

Well, having recently rescued Figaro Castle from where it was stuck under the sands, he and the other currently Awake Loopers of the branch made a stop at the Ancient Castle. It was mostly to release the petrified Esper, Odin. Though the native Loopers had already learned the spells he and his stronger form gave a long time ago, it didn't feel right to just leave him there; especially if he suffered the same fate as the other espers when the source of the baseline's magic was destroyed.

The brown-haired, violet-eyed man walked up and touched the cold stone that Odin had become. Memories of the day the Esper was left in that state played in Kira's head. As the memories ebbed away, the statue in front of him glowed for a moment before condensing into a bluish crystal with an orange core. It felt warm with life in the Looper's hand.

 _Young Warrior_ , a mighty voice echoed in his mind. _I am the Esper, Odin. I can feel the burning strength and desire to protect within you. Call upon my power whenever you need me, Young Warrior._

"Thank you, Sir Odin," Kira expressed to the Magicite he now carried. With Odin in hand, the Looper and his friends left the underground ruins.

After leaving the ancient ruins and helping the depressed Setzer reclaim the Falcon airship he had sealed away, the team headed towards Mobliz to reunite with Terra. Of course, that means dealing with the giant demon that decided to make that wrecked town its target; Humbaba.

Normally, the entire group would have gone into the town to convince Terra to rejoin and fight Humbaba. This time, however, he convinced them to go look for the others and he'd join up with them later with the green haired half-Esper in tow. It did take some reassurances that he knew what he was doing before they left to look for some of the others.

Now, here's where a railroading glitch in the Loops came up. Humbaba was only ever chased away until Terra regained her ability to fight and joined the assault on the massive beast. When she was Awake, this was easy to do as she would likely have dealt with it by the time everyone arrived. But she currently was not Awake right now, which meant driving the giant green demon off.

Right on time, Humbaba rose from the nearby waters. It said quite a bit that, despite not being nearly as tall as the Mobile Suits he was used to, Kira found him relatively intimidating.

Was he actually scared of the huge beast? Nope, he's faced way worse than this thing, even in his baseline. Still, in the back of his mind, there was a primal urge begging him to flight from the primordial force before him. He guessed he could understand, considering the fact that he was staring down a demon many times his size.

 _A daunting foe to many of lesser mettle._ The Esper commented in his mind. Kira wasn't sure just how much connection they had while he had the Magicite equipped, but they could talk telepathically, at least. _But we can best this abomination with ease._

 _I take it that you want a crack at him?_ The Anchor asked with a grin.

 _Well, yes. I've been stone for a long time. I want to the chance to stretch once more, even if only in a temporary manifestation._

Kira was suddenly hit by the state of his current tagalong. This was a proud warrior Esper who was defeated by a powerful invader, only avoided becoming Magicite at the time by sheer force of will. His dying body turned to stone and the kingdom he fought for fell. Now, despite that loss, he was in the hands of someone he deemed worthy of holding onto the crystal that held his soul.

With no further words, the Anchor focused his mind to call forth the power stored within the stone he carried. His right arm came up, a ball of light forming in his palm.

" _O Proud Warrior, O Master of the Blade! Upon thy steed, bring forth the storm of metal that ushers the end of life!_ "

The sphere leaped up higher into the air, rapidly expanding until it was far bigger than Kira. Said summoner's violet eyes held firm on the green-scaled giant before him as the rising orb burst in a brilliant flash of light. A humanoid figure riding a six-legged white and gold horse flew out of the brightness, wearing white and gold armor with a mighty scimitar in one han, a circular shield in the other and a black cloak billowing out behind him. Upon his head, a golden helmet mounted with the horns of an elk.

"DEMON! Prepare thyself for oblivion!"

-o-

3.7 [Facepalmist]

Cloud stepped through the door of 7th Heaven, and was immediately assaulted by two eager females.

"Papa!" Marlene called out.

...Well, _one_ eager female. This was the Sector Seven iteration of Tifa's _7th Heaven_ , and Cloud was merely a mercenary who'd drifted a little ahead of the others on their way back to AVALANCHE's hideout - so Marlene was understandably much more looking forward to her papa's return than to greeting the faux SOLDIER.

"Cloud!"

Tifa herself being in that much of a panic, though... _that_ was new. Intrigued, Cloud let himself be dragged behind the bar.

"Okay Cloud, you have to listen to me," Tifa urgently whispered in his ear. "I know what happened to you in Nibelheim, why you don't remember anything after you attacked Sephiroth..."

Barret came in and greeted his adoptive daughter, and the other three were called in to participate in the standard post-terrorism meeting. Cloud and Tifa were called in too, but Cloud was far too busy listening to his childhood friend as she spun a fanciful, muddled tale about a SOLDIER named Zack Fair who was Cloud's mentor, Shinra experiments that had caused Cloud to mix his memories up with Zack's, Sephiroth's 'mother' Jenova actually being an alien that killed off all the Cetra and wanted to kill everyone else by dropping a meteor on the Planet, and "...you don't believe me, do you."

Cloud stared at Tifa, considering her tale of a past and future that no-one the least bit sane could have believed...and wondering just when she'd Woken up to be so rattled. Then he grinned.

"Actually I'm way ahead of you." And so he went to spin his own tall-tale of a trio of genetically altered men - one of whom wanted to eat Cloud's hair, another trio of genetically altered boys - one of whom liked to, ahem, _play_ with Tifa (as Cloud told Tifa with a lecherous wiggling of his eyebrows), and a trio of demons crammed into a three-decades 'dead' Turk - and the WEAPON Sephiroth's real mother had then crammed on top of them.

Tifa stared at Cloud, with her eyebrow raised. During his tale she'd passed through flabbergasted, lingering on unimpressed (at the innuendo regarding Loz), and settling on expectant.

"So, is this the first time you've woken up in the past?"

Tifa paused. "...first time?"

Cloud shrugged. "Yeah, I've done that a few hundred times already." Then he stepped over and pulled Tifa into a hug. "But I'm glad someone's finally with me. And I'm glad it's you."

-o-

3.8 [Facepalmist]

" _Fire._.."

The Bite Bug burst into flames, weak flames but still flames. A victorious smile flashed across Squall's face as he darted in to strike the monster down.

' _That settles it. It must have been a pure Variant. Which means that method is viable._ '

Very occasionally, when universal time habitually reset - as opposed to when time _compression_ reset, which was a major difference between the two phenomena - Squall found himself in timelines which were jarringly different to the usual flow of events. Squall's last time loop had been such a case, placing him not within Balamb Garden training as a SeeD, but as a run-of-the-mill recruit of the Galbadian Army - six years before the invasion of Dollet, no less. Even stranger, there was a younger version of Squall (or whatever the term was, given that the time-travelling Squall's name and looks were completely different) living and training as per the baseline.

Squall's gut reaction had been to just desert and head for somewhere else. But having crammed that impulse down in order to plan his desertion, it had occurred to him that perhaps this was an opportunity... but not to fight for the G-Army, though. He'd heard enough about the G-Army not to stay in it any longer than necessary. That said, there were certain subjects taught to G-Army recruits that weren't exactly covered so well in Garden.

The major one was taking the time to train in para-magic, the way the G-Army taught it. Namely, drawing and casting it without the double-edged swords known as Guardian Forces to act as a shortcut. And then...

Two more Bite Bugs approached. This time Squall concentrated on the intimately familiar feeling of another spell being cast.

" _Blizzard_." The targeted monster buzzed in pain as the customary cloud of tiny, sharp ice shards dug into its thin carapace. If anything it was even weaker than the fire spell. But nonetheless, the proof was there.

...And then, after spending two years in the G-Army learning anything which was offered, he'd deserted as per his original plan, changed his name (though not to Squall Leonhart, for one reason which would become obvious in four years) and signed up as an instructor in Trabia Garden to teach para-magic. While watching an even tinier Selphie Tilmitt running around had admittedly been entertaining and somewhat nostalgic, 'Leon Crest' (no real reason, it just came to him) had spent the next several years of his downtime pursuing a concept which had bugged him ever since that one training module had caused him to think about it.

G-Army troops could cast para-magic. G-Army troops could draw magic. They could do these things without G.F., with the right training. And para-magic was a pretty new concept, like two decades old - less back when he'd finished the aforementioned training.

If they could draw magic, and they could cast drawn magic, might it be possible to cast magic that _hadn't_ been drawn?

Such a concept flew in the face of established para-magic theory, true - but what if Odine had simply never got round to testing it that far? Logically, in order to mimic drawn para-magic spells one would have to be extremely familiar with the magic in question - but then, if there was one person on the planet who could claim that, it would be Squall. And so following four years of teaching, private study and experimentation, and helping rebuild Trabia Garden after cruise missiles inexplicably landed on it, Squall had taken advantage of the latest time-reset to ditch Quistis after the Fire Cavern test to test out his new and potentially game-changing trick.

The Fire spell had been draw-cast from the Bite Bug - more to make certain the Galbadian-taught method worked. But the Blizzard spell? Well, that one just came out of thin air.

Squall cut down the first Bite Bug, then put more effort behind another Blizzard spell. This time it was about the same magnitude of the draw-cast Fire spell - thus proving that the effect could be improved with focus, effort and practice. True, he was feeling more than a little drained even after casting just those two spells, but the same regimen for improvement of his innate reserves was highly likely to apply.

In other words: the time would hopefully soon come when he could cast magic irrespective of whether he'd drawn any to that point in the timeline. Needless to say, such a skill would be invaluable on many levels. Squall turned back for Garden and his dorm to change for today's field test, a satisfied smile lingering on his face for much of the return trip.

-o-

3.9 [Slayst]

When it wasn't plainly trolling the loopers, Yggdrasil worked in mysterious ways.

Boitat _á_ was learning it once again, as he watched his branch gain yet another looper without any input on his part.

He was thankful though, as the name displayed on his screen was a lot less problematic than that Nox character.

But seriously, Yggdrasil had the strangest of ideas for fused-loops.

As per baseline, Yuna had escaped her wedding to Seymour Guado, thanks to her summon Valefor, and immediately made her way to Bevelle's Temple. Reaching the fayth chamber wasn't a challenge anymore for the Anchor, and she'd done so in record time, ultimately convincing the local Eon to help her on her quest.

Bahamut, the mighty King of Dragons!

Or at least, it should have been. The thing in its place wasn't quite as intimidating, nor really dragony.

As he/it hadn't replied to her ping, she honestly didn't know if this 'Az, King of Tofus' was a looper, or simply a strange variant, but its power was pretty much baseline-Bahamut level and as such, most welcome anyway.

Plus, seeing such a small bird power a Mega Flare and blast Isaaru's summon to kingdom come had been rather funny.

Boitat _á_ sighed.

His branch would be that much more strange with a draconic tofu capable of using nuclear fusion blasts, and he could already see the pile of paperwork coming his way.

-o-

3.10 [Facepalmist]

Tidus blinked, and shivered, and found himself looking down at hands that shimmered like water. And standing on metal plating that had been spraycoated white, instead of the flamboyant paint job of the Celsius where he and Yuna had been canoodling not five seconds ago. And finding his head full of memories that told him he'd spent a blurry, indeterminate time in the Farplane before the Fayth had brought him back to Spira two years later.

He looked up, and saw Yuna standing there in her pilgrimage outfit. Oh, and the other guardians bar Auron standing around him, but it was Yuna that caught his attention. Her expression was downcast, but there was a fatalism there that rang false against what he remembered. The word "no" didn't whisper through her lips, the head didn't shake. There was an acceptance in that gaze there that wasn't there two years ago...

...and now another part of his head was rallying in denial, insisting that not five seconds ago he'd been watching her perform the fatal, final sending as some indefinable part of him fled with the fayth.

"Yuna..." _I have to go._ The dream was over. His time was done-

Tidus stopped, finding himself flatfooted, unable to say the words.

Was it really? argued his...future memories, the ones that told him he had already said the words. The ones that told him he was real, that Yuna had believed it too. The ones that told Tidus that if he left, he would just be back in a couple years... And, he realized with a start, the ones that told him that Yuna was being much calmer about this than he remembered her being. It was like... like she knew what was going to happen. Like she _remembered_ what was going to happen!

His mind raced, scrambling for something to prove she remembered...whatever all that was too.

"Cherish me, Yuna." His voice was trembling, with desperation and with hope. "And I'll cherish you. All right?"

And even before he finished saying her name, Tidus saw the way her expression changed. The wide eyes filling with realization and tears that hadn't been there before. The shaking hand rising to cover her mouth as her jaw dropped. And then Yuna started sprinting towards him... only to stop just a foot away and start inspecting his face as if searching for something there. Maybe she was afraid of ploughing through him like she had last time (last time! he'd gone back in time, him and Yuna!). Or maybe she didn't think-

"Are you real?" Yuna begged.

-that he was real. That he was still a dream, that he might still disappear. He looked back down at his hands, still rippling in and out of solid existence...

"Uhhh, hello?" Rikku interjected from where the others were standing. "If you're not real, then who are we all looking at?"

...The shimmering effect stopped with a decisive flash as Tidus facepalmed.

"Man. You're a real idiot, aren't ya?" Wakka added. The real, foolish-feeling blitzballer found himself trying not to nod in rueful agreement.

"You think, so you are," rumbled Kimahri. "Start thinking."

Lulu threw her arms out, papering over her relief with exasperation. "Really, what were you thinking, scaring us all like that?"

By that point Tidus really didn't care, because now Yuna was in his arms and attempting to squeeze him in half. And not falling through him, which was a big plus.

"So..." he wheezed into her ear. "You remember that too, huh? Do you know what's going on?"

Yuna chuckled wetly into his shoulder. "Well... that's a long story."

-o-

3.11 [Facepalmist]

Cloud entered his current abode, tossing his riding gloves on the bureau just inside the entrance. Hearing a somewhat familiar tune coming from the living room, the on-call courier walked over and stopped in the doorway.

His housemate for the loop was staring at the TV, his eyebrow twitching and a Playstation controller gripped in his hands. Cloud glanced at the TV screen and winced. _'Had to happen sooner or later...'_

"Wall Market?" Cloud stated more than asked.

"Wall Market," Sephiroth confirmed. "On occasion, your life can truly be ridiculous..."

Cloud shrugged. It was hard to argue.

-o-

3.12 (Fan Of Most Everything)

The Roil was, to put it plainly, a bitch. If what the "guest Loopers" had been telling her was true, then Chandra would appreciate something truly random after a few million Loops. As it was, she just wanted to get to the Eye of Ugin safely and easily, and Zendikar's constantly, violently reshaping landscape was making that a pain in the ass.

Still, at least she was able to keep two or three Gurgel brothers alive consistently. There was something endearing about the hapless would-be guides, and keeping goblins alive on Zendikar was a great way for Chandra to practice thinking on her feet.

That's what she thought as she entered Affa Town. When she opened the door to the expeditionary house, she grudgingly decided to change her mind. After all, the best way to keep the brothers alive was not to take them. The eight-foot tall, grey-skinned man wearing armor that wouldn't look out of place on Kamigawa looked like he could take care of himself.

Apparently, he thought something similar. At least, that was probably what the toothy grin and the boisterous shout meant. "Hail, fellow adventurer!" And that.

Sachir, the scarred proprietor of the ally-for-hire shop, grumbled resignedly. The new guy just didn't get it. Well, maybe he'd go get himself killed watching out for this slip of a girl.

Much to Sachir's disgust, Chandra negotiated a very nice deal with the huge man without the use of a middleman. Soon, the two of them were making their way through the spike fields.

"You're a planeswalker, and you're not even from the local Multiverse?" Chandra shot a warning flare at one rocky extrusion and was rewarded with a flinty clicking that quickly grew more distant. "Damn rock lizards. How's that even work?"

"Well," said the huge, cheerful man (who wasn't a giant. Chandra had known giants. She had nearly been stepped on by giants more times than she could count. The man was tall, but he was _not_ a giant.) "I imagine when a rock and a lizard—"

"The other thing," Chandra said quickly. Not fast enough to keep her from picturing it, though. Damn it, Jace only wiped her nastier memories in exchange for favors.

"Oh, yes. Well, in my baseline, I was banished to the Interdimensional Void, and from there wandered from universe to universe. The Void's not as active as your Blind Eternities, but it's the same basic principle."

"Huh." That... kind of explained things? Maybe? "So, Gilgamesh, how are you liking this corner of the Multiverse?"

"Well, there doesn't seem to be an Excalibur, but that means there's no Excalipoor either, which is always nice. And I have found some fascinating weapons for my subspace pocket: zombifying scythe, demon sealed in a butter knife, katana that's also a dragon, even a spare hammer from a forge god. Nice guy." He briefly produced each weapon as he named it, ending with the hammer. Chandra swore there were stars twinkling in there.

She then considered how much time had passed since the start of the Loop. "And you've done all that in a few months."

Gilgamesh shrugged. "No time like the present. Especially when you're not sure how long the Loop lasts. Hey, watch this!" He slammed the hammer down, and the spike fields crumbled. The shards of rock coalesced together to form a humanoid figure with a head of gold and stars in its shadows. Gilgamesh patted the golem on the head. "Pretty neat, huh?"

The ground began to shake as though in response. "Real neat!" Chandra shouted as she went prone. "I think you just triggered a Roil tide!"

"Hmm. That doesn't sound neat at all..."

-o-

3.13 [Facepalmist]

The X-ATM092 slumped in the courtyard outside the communication tower, its repair routines already beginning. Squall stepped back, his Renzokuken Limit Break having done the job for now... But not for long, as Zell and Selphie had also noticed.

"Let's get out of here!" Zell called to the others.

Squall, though, had other ideas this time. "Selphie."

"Yeah, Squall?" the Trabian transfer replied.

The gunblade-wielder, who had _de facto_ command by virtue of the others not questioning it, leaped onto the giant mechanical spider's carapace and used his weapon to hack away a panel. "Think you can hack this thing?"

Selphie shrugged. "I can give it a try!"

As she jumped up to work at the small console Squall had uncovered, he carefully stepped over and lopped off a small protruding section at the back. "That should take care of the remote control..." he muttered, tucking it in his inventory.

Manning the gunship's mini-gun turret, Quistis zeroed in on the spider-like Galbadian war-mech approaching...

...Only to stop and gape as Squall, Zell and a messenger from Squad A came into view on the top of it. The messenger, one Selphie Tilmitt if she remembered correctly, appeared to be steering the mech somehow if her hands being hidden in its innards meant anything. Zell was crab-walking back and forth, inspecting the legs as they moved. And Squall stood dead-centre in the middle of the carapace, keeping watch for threats. He raised his gunblade in a salute to the Instructor as she looked in his direction.

Quistis shook herself. Squall had just earlier today informed her and Headmaster Cid that he was stuck in some sort of time repeat, even providing a small measure of proof though it was only the Headmaster who seemed to comprehend its importance. As such, it was to be expected that Squall would already have plans in place to deal with standard threats like that war-mech probably was. He had promised a more in-depth briefing tonight, once a few other key people had been gathered. If this was a measure of this new Squall's professionalism, Quistis found herself becoming increasingly intrigued as to what was in store.

The X-ATM092 slowed and came to a stop before the gunship's ramp. Selphie tapped a final command into the console as they all jumped off. In response, the Galbadian mech began to shrink and fold in on itself until it took the appearance of a compact bundle the size of a satchel charge. Squall picked it up and tossed it in Selphie's direction. "Spoils of battle. You hacked it, you keep it."

"Tee-hee, thanks Squall!" the messenger crowed as they piled into the ship. Quistis huffed a sigh of relief and joined them.

It was a little later, once things had mostly calmed down, that Squall discreetly leaned over and muttered, "Oh, and next time I do that? I'm giving Selphie a cowboy hat. Then having her ride that think through Dollet like it's a bucking bronco. And filming it."

Quistis stared at him. "...Why?"

Squall shrugged. "To show Irvine later."

"Who?"

-o-

3.14 [Yu Narukaze]

'Error: Primary Anchor candidate nonviable. Commencing Loop attempt with secondary Anchor candidate'

Odin looked at the message on his console with a raised eyebrow. For some reason, the primary Anchor candidate for one of his assigned branches, Tiz Arrior, was incapable of acting as Anchor. The description for the error stated it was due to the fact that Tiz should not have survived in his Loop's baseline, but complicated circumstances brought him back. This would make him nonviable, so Yggdrasil automatically selected the secondary candidate, Agnés Oblige.

Agnés sighed. 'Again? Why does this keep happening?'

This was the... she didn't even know how many times she had gone through this. Every time she, Tiz, and the others beat Ouroboros, she always found herself in the beginning, when she was at the top of the Great Chasm and met Tiz.

The first time, she tried to kill Airy on sight. Of course, she lost, due to the fact that she lost all her abilities when she came back. She deduced it was because she no longer had the Asterisks when she returned.

Then, she went right back to the beginning.

What was happening to her? Whatever it was, it was unacceptable for things to continue this way. However, she had no idea what to do.

Then she found someone else instead of Tiz. '...What?' This was... different. Instead of Tiz, there was a blond-haired man who introduced himself as Cloud.

When they walked out and she saw Airy, she had to resist her anger once again, or be sent back by losing, again.

However, the man seemed to see her anger before she forced it down. Later, when they went to the Inn in Caldisa, he asked her a simple question.

"Has time seemed to be...looping, for you?" When Agnés nodded, he sighed. "Joy. Guess I'll have to give you the Talk."

And before she could ask him what it was about-because she was quite aware of how relationships worked, thank you very much-he proceeded to awe her with what he called the Welcome to the Multiverse speech. She was glad Tiz and the others would most likely join her in these... "Loops." She had no idea when, but she hoped it would be soon.


	4. Chapter 4

Final Fantasy Infinite Loops

Chapter Four

Disclaimer: All of the Final Fantasy characters belong to Square Enix. The original idea for the infinite loops comes from Innortal and later codified by Saphroneth. OathtoOblivion started the Final Fantasy Loops thread and was the first compiler. I think that's every thing...Oh yes Spacebattles is who hosts the Infinite Loops threads.

-o-

4.1 [Drakohahn]

"Well, this takes me back," the brown-haired, violet-eyed Kira Yamato commented to himself as he gazed at the tail waving behind him. "But I'm certainly not dressed like a Saiyan."

He was wearing: a blue, embroidered vest over a white shirt, puffy blue cuffs with no sleeves, blue trousers and off-white boots. On his belt were a pair of large, mismatched daggers. Apparently he was part of a group of thieves/theater troupe called Tantalus which was on its way, by airship, to the city of Alexandria for a performance. The wooden floor creaked a bit as he walked towards the destination his Loop memories told him to go.

The room he found himself was nearly pitch black, so he pulled a match out of a pouch on his belt and lit it. Seeing a large candle set on a table in the middle of the room, he stepped closer and lit it. As the room got brighter, he heard someone call out, "Who's there?"

"It's me, Kira," the monkey boy replied. Seconds later, three young men came out of a connected room off to the right. They were his friends: Sai Argyle, Tolle Koenig and Athrun Zala if they were fantasy humanoids.

Sai had a brutish physique, pointed ears and small fangs poking up from his jaw and wore: a faded red bandana over his head, a dark blue shirt with a massive bandoleer from his right shoulder to left hip, belted cuffs with no sleeves, knee length blue shorts and fur-lined shoes.

Tolle...Kira mentally sighed at seeing what the Loop had done with his friend...had an obvious potbelly with a cylindrical head and facial hair around a rather creepy grin. He had what looked like some kind of metal chef's hat on his head. Leather shoulder pads were all that covered his upper body, plus more sleeveless cuffs and leather shorts for his legs.

Finally, Athrun looked kind of like Frankenstein's Monster with mismatched colors of skin obviously sewn onto him on his chest, face, arms and left leg. He wore no shirt, but he did have a bandoleer over his right shoulder and two thick belts over his abdomen. Also, he had a large belt on his forehead, covering his eyes. Puffy fur cuffs and fur lined boots completed his outfit with his right leg having a leather knee pad.

As one, the four friends gave the Tantalus salute. Athrun then spoke up, "Hey, Kira! You sure are late!"

"Sorry," Kira replied, relying on his Loop Memories for dialect. He then looked around, "So, where's the boss?"

"Ain't here yet," Tolle answered. Suddenly, after he answered, another door opposite the one Kira's friends came out of and up some stairs opened up. And a very large man with a dragon's head and long neck jumped down and roared at them. Immediately, the four of them readied their weapons as the much bigger man pulled out a very big sword.

 _What a way to start a Loop..._ Kira thought to himself.

-o-

4.2 [Zerorock41]

It was that time again. Time for the Emperor to unleash his Cyclone upon the world again. This time however, Firion had an idea. It was a genius idea. A wonderful, brilliant idea. It was also a stupid idea but he wouldn't realize why until later.

While he left his party to go hatch the Wyvern and retrieve Ultima, Firion himself was approaching the Cyclone by foot. Utilizing specialized protection magic, Firion slowly walked right into the center of the vortex, the Emperor's citadel looming above him. And so Firion began his plan.

From his Pocket, he removed several weather control devices and set them to start creating a Tornado that spun opposite of the Cyclone. Next, he began casting every wind based magic he had managed to learn and master over the Loops, even tossing in some Airbending on the side. Finally, after seeing that everything he had was slowing the Cyclone down, Firion began the coup de grâce, a high level Wind spell of his own creation. Mustering all the power he could, Firion cried out:

 _ **"AEROZA!"**_

That did it. A final burst of tremendous gales stopped the Cyclone completely.

Firion cheered, "Yes. The Cyclone is stopped and the Emperor's castle is falling."

...

Firion balked, "Shit. The Cyclone is stopped and the Emperor's castle is falling ON ME!"

Firion ran, ran as fast as he could in any direction to escape the falling building. Sadly, the Wild Rose rebel, distracted by his panic, tripped over himself. The Loop then ended with a tragic sound.

 _ ***CRUNCH***_

(Next Loop)

Firion Awoke in a classroom. At its head was the Cid from Squall's Loop, who was tapping his whiteboard to get the class' attention.

"Right then. Today we will be studying a wonderful force in the world known only as... Gravity."

Firion groaned.

-o-

4.3 [MyrnaMaeve]

They were fighting the Cloud of Darkness, just as they had many times before. And just as before, Luneth was the only one who seemed to remember. He frowned as he dodged the Cloud's physical attack before throwing a shuriken at it. He couldn't help but wonder why he was the only one to remember the fact that time was repeating itself over and over again.

Distracted, he didn't realize the Cloud of Darkness was charging an attack until it was too late, and the Particle Beam was heading right for him.

Luneth winced, bracing himself for another painful death, only to freeze in horror when his childhood friend pushed him out of the way and took the attack instead.

"ARC!"

-o-

4.4 [Tovath]

Rydia blinked.

"Are you doing alright dear? I'm sorry I won't be able to teach you magic today."

"Mommy, you're alive." Rydia was shocked. Her mother had died years ago when she was a child… like she was now.

"Of course dear, I'm not going to leave you. I just have to get rid of some invaders."

Rydia's eyes widened _could it be that I'm back to that day?The day that mom died ..._ "Mom, if you focus energy through the Epeon then if your summoning is destroyed it will rebound on you."

"How?" Rydia's mother started, "Have been you been reading books that you weren't supposed to?"

"No, I just seem to have traveled through time somehow." Rydia winced, realizing how ridiculous that sounded.

"Ranal, Donnan, can you take care of the invaders." she knelt down and gave Rydia a hug. "We'll figure everything out, honey."

A short while later Donnan came to talk to mother.

"A man was at the pass. When he saw us there he commented on this being different and then said that if time was repeating for Rydia, she should find him at the town where she first met Rosa."

-o-

4.5 [Flametusk]

Somehow, Auron found himself back in Zanarkand after being Sent. "So this is what the Farplane's like," he thought to himself, "I wonder where Braska, Jecht and Tidus are. If this is Zanarkand, then the latter must be at the Blitzball stadium,"

As Auron walked to the Blitzball stadium, he heard something that sounded like Braska's name on the radio.

"...Ten years later, the Braska Memorial Cup is today! The to teams, of course, are the Abes from A-East and the Duggles from C-South. We are in for an exciting game tonight, folks! The Duggles have been playing well this season, but will they be able to play against Braska's daughter herself? Maybe we'll get to see what tricks Yuna has picked up from her father."

At this, Auron's breath got caught in his throat. He made his way to the stadium to apologize to Yuna for failing to keep her alive, when he heard Braska's voice calling out to him.

" _It's been ten years. Time to see how well you've been taking care of my daughter, old friend. Get to a high vantage point, and bring her to me. It is time I take her to Spira._ "

Now Auron was confused, as those were the same words Jecht said before attacking the city that was actually an Aeon. Fortunately, he knew just the building to go to, but when he saw the giant bulge in the ocean, he started to feel like this may not have been the Farplane, after all...

-o-

4.6 [tovath]

 _This was either going to be a very interesting loop or a very short one,_ thought Celes as she looked at the Emperor that she had sworn oaths to, all broken now, as he gazed at his throne room. _I still think this idea of Bartz's is crazy._ The only thing that was different this loop was that Bartz had replaced General Leo. If this plan worked than it would completely derail Gesthal's plans of world conquest. If it didn't, well, Gesthal had many ways to punish those who got in his way, none of them nice. For that reason she made sure that no trace of emotion was on her face, even though inside she was laughing her ass off.

The throne room had been redecorated. Atrocious pink and purple banners lined the walls. Some of them had trees being beaten up or doing interpretative dance on them. Bartz had said he was originally going to use them in a prank on the Big Bad of his loop. There was also a big sign welcoming people to Evil Villain HQ.

"What happened here?" Gesthal shouted.

Bartz stepped forward. Now she would see if he could pull off the next part of his crazy plan, not that she wouldn't be helping, or if she would be breaking him out of the cells beneath the place later. "Since the depiction of trees are too elegant for Kefka to have done himself, it must be the interior decorator ninjas," said Bartz.

"Interior decorator ninjas?"

"Yes, sir," said Celes, as had been planned earlier. "They are quite dangerous. We should see if we can find proof of this."

Bartz made a big production of searching before revealing a painted symbol. "See here is the proof we need."

"I am surprised that you both know so much about these ninjas," said Gesthal. If Celes hadn't known that Bartz had come up with the 'ninja' last night, she would have almost believed that Gesthal knew all about them. Damn man, could speak with such absolute conviction that one would believe in him and follow him if they didn't know better.

"I thought that there was a large chance that Kefka would defect to them so we researched them."

"Good, do you know where they are located?"

"Yes, sire, Their hidden village is on a dessert island called Zone Eater Island," said Bartz, acting in all ways like a proper officer. "Should I...?

Gesthal waved the question away. "I will set Kefka to the task." He nodded. "Yes that would be best."

Celes couldn't believe that Bartz had pulled this off. Just a little bit of industrial sabotage on the ships Kefka would be using and he wouldn't be a problem anymore this Loop.

-o-

4.7 [Chronopie]

The silvery-haired nineteen year old blinked, and punched the goblin in front of him. Why he was face to face with a goblin, Tiz had no idea. The red aura of activating a Brave flared around him, and he punched the Goblin again. And a third time.

With the goblin defeated, Tiz sat on a nearby rock to think. The last thing he remembered was sitting down on Til's gravemarker, in the Caldisian graveyard, preparing to release the Celestial spirit who'd been sustaining his life...

Then he was face to face with a Goblin in... yes, in the Norende Ravine.

Still, punching that Goblin hurt more than he recalled. Especially as a fourteenth level Monk. He shook his hand again, sure he'd bruised his knuckles. Probably didn't help that he was currently a Freelancer...

...

And the Asterisks were missing.

...

This was not the time to panic. Just because he couldn't feel the connection to the Asterisks didn't mean he was helpless. He just... Couldn't use black magic, or white magic, or time magic, or summoning, or any kind of debuff... And the Freelancer job wasn't a _terrible_ skillset. It just didn't stand out, with no real proficiency of any kind, and equal skill in all kinds of weapon...

…

Which were also missing. No, wait, he had a Broadsword. A plain, iron Broadsword.

Well, his fists would do for now. Just need to find Agnes, Ringabel and Edea. One of them would have his gear, and the beacon for the Grandship. Then he could work out who activated the Holy Pillar this time, and why.

 **-o-**

4.8 {Facepalmist]

Squall stood at ease in his place in the line-up, staring straight ahead as Headmaster Cid Kramer addressed the students who would take the SeeD field exam. Cid waddled back and forth, running through his prepared speech.

Or at least, so Squall assumed. He couldn't understand a word that Cid was saying.

"Quack quack qua-quack, quackquackquack. Quack quackquackquack qua-ack?"

Assuming this was any kind of speech, let alone a prepared one.

"Quack qua-quack quack quackquack quarrck qua-quack quack Quack Quay quack Queek..."

And that this was, in fact, Cid.

"Quack quack quack quackquackquack quack-ack quack quack-a-quack."

As opposed to a common, everyday, normal-sized duck. Wearing a red waistcoat. But still a _duck_.

"Quack-qua-quack, quack qua-quack quack quack queack. Quack quack quack, quacka-quack quack qua-quack, quack-qua quack qua-quaack..."

Yep. Keeping eyes forward and pretending it was the standard speech seemed to be the thing to do here... Well, that and keeping a camera on hand for the day that Zell Dincht appeared as a chicken - but that went without saying.

-o-

4.9 [Zerorock41]

Standing right out on one of the outcroppings above the Mushroom Rock Road, Tidus steeled himself for what he was about to do. "He's trying to kill himself," thought several of the onlookers, including his fellow Guardians. Perhaps this was gonna kill him. But he had waited oh so many Loops for this chance.

As Operation Mi'hen began, Sin started to rise from the sea. Weapons fired, all bouncing uselessly against the monstrous beast.

As the semi-space whale approached, Tidus dug his feet into the ground, pulled out a giant megaphone from his Pocket, and began to yell.

"ABOUT DAMN TIME YOU SHOWED UP OLD MAN!"

Sin slightly turned it's head, but continued forward. Meanwhile everyone on the cliffside turned towards Tidus, wondering what he meant.

"YOU BETTER HAVE A GOOD FEW THOUSAND GIL FROM ALL THOSE TOWNS YOU BLASTED!"

With that, even Sin stopped and made a strange guttural sound, almost as if saying "Huh?"

"YOU HEAR ME JECHT! YOU'VE GOT A GOOD TEN YEARS OF CHILD SUPPORT YOU OWE ME!"

-o-

4.10 [Flametusk]

When Tidus Awoke in the Cavern of the Stolen Fayth, he could quickly see that this was going to be a _very_ short and bad loop for him. He consulted his in-loop memories, but didn't get much farther back than noticing he attacked a Tonberry right before he Woke up.

Tidus avoided the robed fishpeople as often as he could after one loop where he learned that Karma takes in to account all kills, not just the ones from that loop. This loop, however, his unawake self didn't know about Karma, and thought the thing would be easy spheres. Suffice to say, he wasn't strong enough to kill the Tonberry in one hit, and now Awake Tidus would be the one to suffer.

"Oh for crying-" He never got to finish his exclamation as the Tonberry executed him.

Yuna, who was Awake at the time, allowed the unawake Tidus to attack the Tonberry only because his kill count was low enough that Karma wouldn't do anything that a quick Curaga couldn't heal. Upon hearing his cut off sentence, however, she realized that not even a full-life would be enough to bring him back.

-o-

4.11 [Tovath]

Ramza Awoke and saw that he was at Orbonne with Gaffgarion and Rad again. In a way he was glad of this. The last few resets of time has sent him back to Gariland Military Academy. He kept trying to avert all of the tragedies that happened. He kept failing as well. Teta kept dying, if not at Algus' hands then at the hands of someone else. Milluda was too stubborn to back down and truly what way out could he offer her. Rafa wouldn't believe him until too late.

He was half sure that all this was some punishment in the afterlife for his mistakes. Despite all his attempts at following the path of honor, he has been declared a heretic after all. Yet he had seen proof of the lies of the church.

Ramza shook away his thoughts as he followed Gaffgarion into the chapel to see what was taking the princess so long. Gaffgarion got into an argument with Agrias as usual. What wasn't normal was the princess. She wasn't Ovelia. Despite this rather large change no one else acted any differently and events unfolded the same way as they always did. He told Gaffgarion that he would stay and guard the princess.

Once everyone left he turned to the Princess. "You are not Ovelia."

"No, I seem to be replacing her this loop though. Are you the local Anchor?"

That was the last thing he expected her to say. "What are you talking about?"

"You are repeating the same events over and over, right?" At his nod she continued, "I will have to give you the Welcome to the Multiverse speech then." She paused for a moment. "How long do we have before something happens?"

Ramza wasn't sure what was going on but if this woman was offering to explain then he wanted to hear what she had to say."In a few minutes Delita is going to come in and try to kidnap you."

"What should we do about him?"

That was a good question Ramza had tried many different ways of dealing with Delita. "I'm not sure, I don't want him to die. He used to be my best friend, but we won't be able to talk him out of his plan in time."

"I have an idea, but first I think I should introduce myself properly. I am Zelda of Hyrule." she pulled a red cape out of nowhere. "One of the things I will be teaching you is how to make your own subspace pocket." She unfurled the cape. "Now this is the Magic Cape* It can make it so no one can see us, but we are going to have to stand very close for it to cover both of us."

There were sounds from outside. "Quick into the shadows" She pulled the cape around both of them. It had been a long time since he had been this close to a woman. He saw Delita come running in, look around, say a few curse words he hadn't known when he was younger and leave. Zelda pulled away. "I better give at least the first part of the speech before anything else happens."

She then started to explain about Yggdrasil and how the Admins, who sounded like Gods to Ramza, were trying to fix it.

"Now before we get into the next sections, do you have any questions?"

Ramza had only one very important question. "Why is someone chosen as an Anchor?"

"I believe, and understand that I haven't had any long conversations with them, that the Admins chose the person who is best able to withstand the stress of the position."

Ramza wiped tears out of his eyes. "Thank you, I've been wondering why me for so long."

"There is one more thing. It was what I really wanted to hear. Others will start Looping. You won't be alone forever."

*From A Link to the Past

-o-

4.12 [Drakohahn]

Marche found his first fight against the White Monk and Fighter Bangaa with Montblanc to be much easier than last time. He only had access to his Soldier skills, but that was fine. He was getting some additional gil to bolster his soon-to-be clan with Mug, after all.

Anyway, they both went down quickly enough and then the White Monk used a potion on a day where item use in battle was forbidden. Apparently, he's had multiple offenses today as he was given a red card rather than the standard yellow and was then sent to prison by the Judge. Then Montblanc pulled him away from the scene to have a chat.

"That was a rather reckless thing to do; calling a Bangaa a lizard, kupo!" the Moogle about half his size admonished.

Now, Marche was conflicted. Should he try to follow the "script" from last time or should he try to explain what happened? Perhaps he should just split the difference.

"Well... It's technically my first time seeing a Bangaa," the young man replied sheepishly. That gave the Moogle some pause.

"Technically?"

"Does it count as your first time after going back in time?" Marche asked confusedly. Montblanc looked at him like he just said the sky was mango.

"So, you're saying that we've met before, that you came here because of a powerful magic book and you can't go home without defeating the embodiment of said book?" Montblanc summarized.

"I know it's crazy. I can barely believe it myself, but I've experienced some very powerful magic before and this seems right up the Gran Grimoire's alley."

The moogle shook his head before asking, "Okay, say I believe you. What do you plan to do next?"

"Find my younger brother, for one. Things will be much easier this time around if I can get through to him before he starts causing trouble."

Montblanc nodded.

"That sounds sensible enough. I'm the oldest of six and I know that we don't always get along."

"You'll help me then?" Marche asked hopefully. The Moogle grinned and held out a hand.

"Sure I will."

The young man took hold of his old friend's hand and shook. As they began walking towards the Pub where their soon-to-be named clan awaited, they conversed some more.

"So, you mentioned crystals before," Montblanc started. At Marche's nod, he continued. "I do believe you about that much. After all, I believe in the 'Crystal Theory' myself."

"Yeah, you told me that last time through." The young man gained a thoughtful look as he put a hand to his chin. "Actually, perhaps that's why you chose to believe me the first time trough as well."

"What's a story about being from a world where your species only exist in fiction when you think the palace has made crystals that haven't been found yet for some strange purpose?" the Moogle replied in good humor.

"Right!" Marche agreed as they weaved through the crowd. Then he realized what his friend had said and began to apologize, but Montblanc waved it off with a chuckle.

"You'll find all sorts of crazy stories out there. Have you heard about the Nu Mou who was raised by Rockbeasts?"

-o-

4.13 [Chronopie]

Tiz rolled his shoulders and punched the goblin. Again. Every five or so loops, after they defeated Orouboros, he ended up back in the Ravine without the asterisks, rather than in Karl's inn.

He hadn't said anything to the others yet. Airy never seemed to be out of Agnes' sight, and there was no way he was going to risk her turning into her monstrous form without his friends in the know and with the power of the asterisks.

Speaking of which... The silver-haired nineteen year old grinned. In this world, the Freelancer job was actually an Asterisk, unlike the last couple times, where it was simply the lack of one, but, more importantly, he could feel the knowledge of its techniques.

The knowledge of how to make the most of any (other) Asterisk, how to roll with the blows just so, to endure the hits properly. The mystic connection that rendered him immune to poisons, and allowed him to survive massive damage and fight on. And, significantly, how to mimic someone's movements just right to draw out effects he shouldn't be able to use as a Freelancer.

It was even strengthening his body slightly. It only took two hits, rather than three, to drop that Goblin.

Now he just needed to work out how to carry over Asterisks between these resets. And maybe some of those Asterisks that only showed up rarely, like the Wizard Asterisk that Ominas Crowe had one time instead of his normal Black Mage. Or that Matchlock girl that replaced Artemia, but fought like Khint with a gun. Or that Guardian job that attacked with beams of light.

But he was getting sidetracked. Speaking of sidetracking, maybe he'd be able to get the drop on Barras and Holly this time, now that he could use the Freelancer job to its fullest...

-o-

4.14 Final Fantasy Senshi part one [Tovath]

Cecil Awoke while running to school. He stopped and looked around at the businesses, cars and apartment complexes then started running again. This time to go save a cat. He had been to this loop several times before and rather liked it. He had learned so much about being a Looper from Usagi the first time he was here.

The boys were in the same parking lot they always were and they were run off just as quickly. Their parents were doing an awful job raising the kids if they thought such a thing as tormenting a cat was fun. His own son would never do such a thing. Cecil told himself to stop woolgathering.

He took the band-aid off the cat's face. "Are you Awake?" he asked. He got an unbending stare in return. This is when he realized that he had forgotten to Ping. After doing so he got ten replies back, but there was no indication that the cat before him had even noticed them.

Then the bell at his school sounded out indicating the start of classes. He swore and ran off. _Best to keep this baseline until I have some idea of who is here._

xxx

The test at school went fairly well for Cecil. He got a 75; Usagi had once told him she got a 30 in her baseline. On the way back home, he kept his eyes open for Mamoru, or possibly (hopefully) Rosa, but no such luck. He did see a young man with blond hair in a ponytail, but Tokyo was the largest city in a world whose medium sized cities were larger than Baron. There was no way to be sure that man hadn't been there before.

Nothing else of note happened until that evening. Cecil was laying on his bed thinking about the awkwardness of having friends and family who were not actually his when Luna showed up. "I have been looking for you for some time. You see you are the reincarnation of a great warrior. I am here to help you regain your old power, so that you can defeat the evil power that is plotting to take over the world."

Cecil was going to take this as his cue to ask how she was going to do that when Luna did a little flip and a pin in the shape of one of the crystals appeared. "Now put this on and say 'Moon Power."

When he said the transformation phrase a sword came down from the Heavens. Once he grasped it he was wearing armor. Blue and white armor that he knew quite well since it was his Paladin armor. He already knew where to go, so he jumped out the window and —

"Wait for me."

—headed to the OsaP with a cat on his head.

xxx

When Cecil arrived the jewelry store was full of unconscious people and a monster in a black dress, who was ranting about Queen Beryl and the Negaverse while choking Cecil's classmate, Naru.

"Let her go," he called out.

The monster turned its head around 180 degrees to look at him. "What... Why do you have a cat on your head?"

That was a good question, but not one he wanted to answer. He shrugged and decided to roll with it. "I am the Cat Paladin. Now release the girl and stop your evil deeds or I will punish you!"

"I've never heard of you and I'm sure I never will again." She raised her arm incidentally releasing Naru. "Arise my children and serve the great power that is the Negaverse." she might no longer be choking Naru, but all the women who had been collapsed on the floor were now shambling towards him. He avoided the fat woman trying to grab him and a couple other girls. Suddenly, but not surprisingly for Cecil, a rose came flying at the monster. Cecil looked up toward the window to see a young man who was most decidedly not Tuxedo Mask. He had a black mage's hat on that was casting shadows over his face, the armor of a knight and a cloak the same shade of green as Rydia's hair.

"Spirits of time, Hide us from the judging hand of God! Stop!"

Cecil hadn't even known that spell had a full incantation, but he wasn't going to waste this chance. He rushed forward sword in hand and sliced the monster in half. When he turned back to the window to thank the man there was no longer anyone there.

"Black mages can't jump like that." said the cat who was possibly not Luna after all.

"When did you Awaken?" Cecil asked.

"Um, sometime today. I freaked out when I first awakened, 'cause of the whole cat thing and the expecting to be attacked thing..."

Cecil facepalmed "So what is your name anyway?"

"Firion."


	5. Chapter 5

Final Fantasy Infinite Loops

Chapter Five

Disclaimer: All of the Final Fantasy characters belong to Square Enix. The original idea for the infinite loops comes from Innortal and later codified by Saphroneth. OathtoOblivion started the Final Fantasy Loops thread and was the first compiler. I think that's everything...Oh yes Spacebattles is who hosts the Infinite Loops threads.

-o-

5.1

Admin [Oath to Oblivion]

Madoka blinked as she saw some the new data pop up on her terminal pertaining to the Super Smash Bros Loops. When did that get there?

"Um...Hecate?"

The Greek Goddess of Magic walked up to her younger coworker, and blinked in surprise as well. "Okaaaay, that's bizarre. How'd the data of one of Odin's Anchors get in here?" she asked, seeing the form of a certain blond, spiky-haired wielder of the Buster and Fusion Swords.

"Do you think...something's going on?" Madoka put out there.

Hecate rubbed her chin. "Don't think so. This looks like baseline data. But why did it only appear now?" she wondered.

Madoka typed away, reviewing the data. "It looks like the Hub recovered some data on the backups, which freed the data from variant possibilities and let it resume its place in baseline sequencing," she noted.

"But unlike the issues with some of the others, there's no reason for this data to have been left out," Hecate added.

"...Is it an expansion then?" Madoka asked.

Hecate frowned. "The way Smash is set up, that shouldn't be really possible...or that's what I thought. I wonder...was Smash really as Stable as it had seemed back then?"

"Hecate?"

The Nintendo Admin shook her head. "I need to do some digging. In the meantime, go tell Odin about this, while I make sure it integrates smoothly."

"What's that? Cloud's in Smash?" Odin said, pausing from where he'd been going over some of the coding involving the Digimon Loops' local version of Yggdrasil.

Madoka nodded. "Yes, his coding has been found in new baseline data."

"Well, that's rather bizarre," the one-eyed Admin commented, pulling up the Final Fantasy Loops' data. "Then again, I'm not surprised that more data has been flying everywhere."

Madoka blinked at seeing what looked like a tangled web on the screen. "Is that...the Final Fantasy Branch?"

"Yes. There are so very many smaller limbs that take data from the larger ones. Combine that with the Rift, and it can be rather headache-inducing. Now, let me see..." Odin said, looking through the data links, before finding a tenuous one stretching off from Final Fantasy VII in the direction of the Nintendo Cluster. It would likely strengthen once Cloud's data was reintegrated into the Smash baseline.

"I'm rather surprised that it's Cloud's data, honestly. That section doesn't have a preexisting link with the Nintendo Cluster. I would have more expected Terra or Cecil to have ended up there," he commented.

Madoka simply shrugged, not knowing what to say.

"Well, it all seems to be in order. No glaring flaws that I can see."

"Thank you, sir," Madoka bowed, returning to her own terminal. Meanwhile, Odin leaned back in his chair, pondering the situation.

 _'Something like this wouldn't have been out of the ordinary before the Loops. ...Could it be that-?'_

-o-

5.2 [Tovath]

Firion dodged another blow, thrusting the Zenithian Sword though one of the soldiers. _This time I'm going to do it. I will defeat these soldiers I start every Loop fighting._ He got through the guard of another soldier with a low swing, taking out a kneecap. There was a sound behind him, but he couldn't turn fast enough. Blackness surrounded him.

Waking up in this room after the healers were finished working on him was familiar. Finding Leon standing outside his door with Guy and Maria was not.

"Leon..."

Leon fortunately didn't see his surprise. "How did you ever learn to fight like the, Firion?"

"Um, what happened after I was knocked out?"

"Well, after you took care of most of those soldiers, my sister got the last one with an arrow." He sounded rather proud of her there.

"It was just a lucky shot," said Maria. "We happened upon some members of the Wild Rose Rebellion after the fight. They agreed to help us."

"So, how did you do that?" Leon actually sounded a bit jealous.

"I..." Firion was unsure of what to say. He didn't want to lie, but last time he tried to explain about the Loops had been a mess. "I learned how to control my chi. I wasn't sure it would work or not."

-o-

5.3 [MyrnaMaeve]

They were fighting the Cloud of Darkness, and they were winning, even if they'd run out of Phoenix Downs. Arc couldn't help grinning to himself, just a little bit. If only the kids from Ur could see him now! He certainly wasn't a coward anymore.

As he pondered over what spell to cast next, he cast a quick glance at Luneth, watching as his childhood friend dodged an attack before retaliating. Arc noticed that he seemed lost in thought, but was otherwise fine. Then he saw that the Cloud of Darkness was charging an attack, and Luneth, distracted as he was, was directly in the line of fire.

Arc didn't think, calling out his friend's name as he dashed forward and pushed Luneth out of the way. Then the Particle Beam hit, and everything went dark.

Arc frowned. This didn't make sense. Nothing made any sense. Why was he back in Ur? Hadn't he died?

"Oh yeah? Ghosts don't exist? Then go there yourself and prove it!"

He was standing in the patch flowers next to the pond on the edge of town, surrounded by three of the kids who liked to bully him. The situation seemed oddly familiar, almost as if...

"Ha! You don't have the guts! You're a coward!"

Now he remembered. This had happened before, after the town of Kazus had been cursed. The bullies had been convinced Kazus was filled with ghosts, and he had disagreed. Had he gone back in time somehow?

"Hey, Arc. What's going on?"

There was Luneth, wearing his Freelancer outfit. Exactly the way he was when everything began.

"It's Luneth! Let's get out of here!"

As the bullies fled, Arc couldn't help but stare. "Luneth…"

He remembered sacrificing himself to save Luneth from the Cloud of Darkness' attack. What had happened afterwards? Had they won? Was the Cloud of Darkness defeated?

"Arc? Are you okay?" Luneth was frowning. "You're acting funny."

Shaking himself from his thoughts, Arc gave Luneth a weak grin. "I'm fine. I just remembered something weird, from a… strange dream that I had, that's all."

A faint glimmer of what looked like hope appeared in Luneth's eyes. "...Do the names Refia and Ingus mean anything to you?"

Arc's eyes widened in shock. "How…?"

Luneth's face broke into a beaming grin. "You remember! Someone finally remembered! I'm not alone anymore!"

"Luneth, what are you talking about!? Remembered what?"

Luneth was practically bouncing with excitement. "The time loops! Time keeps repeating itself, but I've been the only one to remember each time things reset! I thought I was going crazy... what's the last thing you remember?"

Arc froze. How was he supposed to tell his best friend he remembered dying for him? Had there been more of these "loops" between now and when that had happened? Was that why Luneth didn't know? What should he say? What could he say?

"...Arc?" Luneth's excitement had vanished, to be replaced with concern. "Arc, what's wrong?"

"...We were with Refia and Ingus, fighting an extremely powerful monster called the Cloud of Darkness," Arc started eventually, deciding that it would be best to just tell the truth. "Even though we had run out of Phoenix Downs, we were winning. Then..."

"Then...?" Luneth prompted, frowning.

"You got distracted. The monster had a one-hit kill attack, and you... you were directly in the line of fire. I..." Arc looked down at the ground. "I pushed you out of the way..."

"...And you took the attack instead," Luneth stated, his voice torn. "Arc..."

Looking up, Arc saw the distraught look on his friend's face. Wincing, he quickly tried to put Luneth's mind at ease. "I'm alive now, though, aren't I? We'll just... have to make sure that doesn't happen again."

Luneth frowned, then nodded, a determined look on his face. "Right. You're right. We'll be more careful... I'll be more careful. So don't you ever think of doing that again."

Arc gave a faint smile. "I won't. Though I wasn't really thinking when I did it." He paused. "Should we head to Kazus? We need to lift the curse, after all."

"You're right; wouldn't want to keep anyone waiting!" Luneth said, grinning. "Who knows, maybe Refia or Ingus have remembered this time, as well! Let's go!"

Following Luneth as he walked for the town gates, Arc couldn't help feeling that everything would be all right.

-o-

5.4 [Oath to Oblivion]

Cecil's eye wasn't twitching. It most certainly was not. "Rydia?"

"Yeah, Cecil?"

"Why does Whyt look like a bee?" he questioned, pointing to Rydia's personal Eidolon.

Rydia shrugged. "I don't know, why do the Red Wings fly beeships instead of airships this Loop? Why does Kain have bee-themed armor? Why was Scarmiglione part-bee? Why are the Lunarians not Lunarians and instead-?"

"Okay, I'm going to have to cut you off on that last one," Cecil hastily said. Underneath his armor, his wings twitched slightly.

-o-

5.5 Gundam SEED/Final Fantasy Unlimited [Drakohahn]

Mu La Flaga Woke up rather confused. He was covered in a black cloak over mostly black other clothes...but the main thing was a dull golden colored thing on his right arm which prevented him from using that hand for anything. He also wasn't getting much from his loop memories, mostly hazy snippets that he couldn't make out quite right. It was a bit different than his time as Neo Roanoke, but close enough that he could see similarities too. The person he replaced must have had amnesia.

Well, this was going to be a pain. Still, while he didn't have the memories to guide him, he could feel great instinct driving him towards a goal...but what was the goal? What was he trying to remember?

He'd heard a disturbance nearby. Looking towards it, he'd see a giant mushroom thing in the middle of a big cloud of dust. It seemed to be attacking someone...who could handle themselves from how it just got sent flying by some kind of toss. However, it got up after landing, turning into some kind of monstrous humanoid form.

 _Chaos!_ Wait, who was it that just spoke into his head?

 _A servant of Chaos, Unlimited!_ A different voice, but he still couldn't make out a gender.

 _Hurry, Unlimited! Slay the fragment of destruction!_ A third voice...what was going on here? However, the voices didn't like that creature and neither did he. So, he rushed in that direction. Soon, he found himself at the edge of a cliff, staring up at the giant humanoid fungus.

 _Call IT forth, Unlimited! The winds of judgment that stir the Soil! The Magun!_ Soil? Magun? He looked down at the thing on his arm, a light now glowing within a section of the dull length. Words came instinctively to his lips.

"It has moved." He was a pilot, so trusting his instinct was second nature by now. So, he let what his body remembered guide him. "SOIL, is my power!"

He brought his arm up to his chest, as a large trio of blades popped out of a different mechanism and started spinning. It was drawing in some kind of power from the surrounding atmosphere. After a few moments, the blades retracted again and he instinctively extended his hand out as the device started glowing across its entire length. Then, it broke into little pieces and reassembled itself into a big triangular gun with three barrels...and a black beating heart in a glass ball near his arm over the pistol grip. Finally, a small cylindrical segment with three covered gaps finished forming the weapon and the energy gathering stopped.

 _Now heed us, Unlimited! Call upon our power once more to slay the fragment of Chaos!_ It's not like Mu La Flaga had any choice at this point. He'd listen to these voices that seemed to know him.

 _Caring Love_

 _Primordial Flame_

 _Living Spirit_

The words that came to him conveyed some deep meaning that his body understood as it reached down and plucked a strange glass bullet full of some kind of colored sand.

"The origin of all things, Mother Black."

With a deft flick, it sailed towards the openings in the cylinder, now uncovered. It slid in without issue, causing the cover over that chamber to close again. He then picked up another one.

"A heat that will scorch all creation, Fire Red."

Another flick and it was sent into the next chamber. The cover closed over that one too.

"And finally, the critical point of everything, Burning Gold."

With the last "bullet" in place and covered, the black heart of his weapon started beating rapidly. The golden gun in his hand hummed with incredible power.

"Burn up! I summon you, PHOENIX!"

He pulled the trigger. With the roar of a mighty explosion, a huge billow of smoke exited the barrel. However, the smoke started to twist and out of this plume came three trails of brightly colored substance matching the three "bullets" he put in. They were spiraling around each other in a triple helix that soon smashed into the humanoid thing in front of him.

The thing put up an arm to block the shot, which impacted with some force, but didn't budge the creature. It then looked at the nub at the end, seeing it did nothing. It took a pose, like it was mocking his effort. However, as it did so, it's body started twitching and struggling uncontrollably. Then, its torso rapidly bloated up and turned its body red from the inside. He could hear its cries of pain as whatever was happening coursed through its form.

Then, with a mighty explosion of intense heat, it went up in a gigantic fireball. Out of this fireball came a massive bird of burning flame and red crystal. It sang a beautiful cry before turning into an arrow of flame and zipping into the sky. Oddly, it then CRASH'd through the sky like it was a glass ceiling, which then rapidly reassembled itself. Well, that was fascinating to watch.

He looked over at the people the thing had been attacking. They stood in complete awe of his victory. So, seeing as they were his own source of information, he started towards them. Perhaps they'll have a clue as to what he had to do in this loop.

-o-

5.6 [Tovath]

Locke was confused. Narshe was a bustling city again. The Cup and Bowl was even here. This was impossible. There was no way they could have rebuilt the town this well even it there were enough people to do it. How did he get here anyway, last he remembered he was on the Falcon with Celes and Terra and the others. This was making his head hurt, so he headed to his favorite bar like he always did / had done when he was thinking too hard.

The minute Locke entered The Green Dragon the bartender waved him over. "Arvis wants to see you."

Locke struggled to keep the shock from his face. Was he was in the past? that is the only thing that made sense for Arvis was dead. "Did he say why?"

"Likely something to do with the Imperial Magitek Armors that attacked not long ago." Locke pretty much ran out the door after hearing that.

By the time he had finished talking with Arvis, Locke was convinced that he was back in time somehow. Now what should he do with this information about the future. _I could tell Edgar about that rich man in South Figaro who is planning to betray the town to the Imperials. That should stop the invasion._ He stopped. _But what will happen to Celes then. Best case I will have to fight her. I don't want to fight the woman I love. No, I can't let that stop me. I'll find some way to make it all come out right_

First he had to find Terra, who should be right though this cave here. She was, but someone else was with her. "Celes, what are you doing here?"

He had never seen such a big smile on Celes' face. "Locke, you're Awake."

"Well I sure hope I'm not dreaming."

"I don't think he knows what that means yet, Celes," said Terra, she was smiling too, "Just to make sure, time has been repeating for you right, Locke"

"Ya could say that."

-o-

5.7 [Facepalmist]

"The hell's goin' on!? I knew somethin' was missing. All my materia's gone!"

Cid looked around. "Ey... where the hell's that damn kid?"

Cloud cut across Barret's incipient M-rated explosion. "Eh, don't care. She'll be back..."

Barret stared at Cloud. Cid stared at Cloud. Further back, coming over the hill in two widely spaced groups to avoid monsters, the others stared at Cloud.

"...Okay, better question," Cid wondered. "What the hell are ya doin' with Yuffie's shorts?"

In response, Cloud started going through the pockets, finding about a third of the filched materia.

"HEY! Give 'em back!" Yuffie's voice shrieked from far ahead.

"You first!" Cloud called back.

Barret and Cid started leaping about yelping and cussing as the thief started returning them at high velocity. Cloud started laughing at them, while snagging the odd materia that turned out to actually be on target.

-o-

5.8 [Chronopie]

"The ground forms up under his feet as if pointing the way."

The voice over the speakers seemed to be narrating, rather than actually talking _to_ him. Whatever. There was clearly only one path.

"Finds his lifelong friend just lying in the road." A sledgehammer, heavy and bronze. Strange memories of things that certainly never happened before the Great Chasm called it a Cael Hammer, and the place he was walking, the Rippling Walls.

"He sees what's left of the Rippling Walls. Years of work undone in an instant. In the Calamity."

After finding a hodgepodge gun, looking like it was made from an actual animal's skeleton, Tiz found a bar. It was only occasionally that he drank, but this was one of the stranger things he'd seen when the world reset.

No alcohol left. Looks like other people looted the place already. Did find a heavy bronze shield though. Memories said it was his... Why his shield was in a bar, and behind the counter at that...

Had a nice mirror sheen on it too. Enough to deflect the security system's bolt back at it.

When the big blue... Gasbags? attacked, one knocked Tiz out a window. Not his finest moment. The fall was further than expected too. Thinking quickly, or perhaps in an act of desperation, he tried to call upon the abilities of the Valkyrie Asterisk. Sure, he didn't have one on him, and he still didn't know how to carry things from one reset to the next, but it wouldn't be the first time he'd used a skill without the matching stone.

It worked. Just for a moment, but for that moment his clothing bleached of colour, and the impact as he hit the ground was far less than it would've been otherwise.

The man behind the voice behind the speakers was here, a man named Rucks. He had white hair and a cane, but the hair color was natural, not a product of age, and the cane compensated for a limp, not just frailty."Proper story's supposed to start at the beginning. Ain't so simple with this one. Now here's a kid whose whole world got all twisted, leavin' him stranded on a rock in the sky."

Tiz sat up slowly, shaking his head. Where was the goblin? At least a hundred times now, he'd punched that goblin in the snout. More like a thousand times.

"He took his time. Perfectly understandable, when everything you know and love has gone, scattered like so much ash in the wind."

And where was that voice coming fr- Oh, there was the loudspeaker. Curious, Tiz walked over to the sole doorway of the room. For the most part, there was nothing but a desolate emptiness.

Even so, the sight of someone else - even if it was a stranger - was a great relief.

"Welcome, kid, to the Bastion. Name's Rucks, I'm glad to see another survivor."

"Name's Tiz." The silver haired kid looked around at the devastation. Even this... Bastion, looked like it was on it's last legs. "Just Tiz."

The crystalline core he'd picked up wasn't some kind of strange Asterisk, even if it had the same sort of... echo, he guessed, of stored power. No, instead it was a power core that stopped what little was left of the world from crumbling any further.

Doing as Rucks directed, he set the core in the central point of the Monument in the center of the floating island...

And just like that, the Bastion comes alive. Starts growing again… Growing stronger. The power hums through the island, and part of the island shifts, growing outwards. More than that, it grows upwards, into the beginnings of a building.

It's almost organic, the way it shaped itself into a perfect copy of the Arsenal building Tiz saw out on the Rippling Wall.

As celebration for the first step towards rebuilding the Bastion - didn't that have shades of Norende - Rucks handed Tiz a shotglass.

"Fetching Fizz. The benefits are worth the taste."

Rucks downed his shot in one. Tiz imitated him.

It tasted like a mouthful of nails. Rucks broke into gales of laughter at the look on Tiz's face.

Taking the Skyway, essentially an empowered leap, Tiz's gear again flashed white just long enough to avoid faceplanting into the pavement.

The workman's ward. Over to the East, judging by his airtime, was a large-ish building, looking like a blacksmith's forge. The core looked like it was in the northern quadrant. Better to check out the smithy first, in case taking the core brings the place crashing down...

There's a strange, quiet man at the Hanging Garden, goes by the name of Zulf. Reminds Tiz of Lord DeRosso, only with more brooding and less awesome 'vampire' powers. Say what you will about his imitations of monster skills, but some of them could be downright deadly. Bone Crush was particularly devastating when used right,

But that's a matter for another time.

Zulf is one of these 'Ura' folk. They have, or at least had, their own customs, language, and culture. They were also the losers of the war with Caelondia, failing to penetrate the Caelondian defenses, and overwhelmed by the superior technology.

Zulf was supposed to be one of their peace ambassadors. And now the world's gone to smash.

Pyth's Shrine serves to remind Tiz that this place isn't anything like home. Different people, different religion, different culture... But it all still seems so real, even as different as it all is.

Cinderblock fortress lived up to its name, but it yielded a crystal core and a nice new musket. it was funny really. Even with this reset throwing an entirely unfamiliar world in his way, there was a cataclysm that destroyed his home, and he was on a quest for the crystals to try and repair what was broken.

The Langston river though. Whoo. That was a ride and a half. Peckers, Windbags, and turrets galore. The ferry, Weeping Nellie, served him well enough. It was more like an Eschalot than a Grandship though, and Tiz didn't mind leaving the broken ship behind, though not without a pat in farewell.

Prosper Bluff held another surprise. A fourth survivor, another Ura, this one female.

"Oh, it's that time again... So who might you be?"

The songstress, by the name of Zia, had a great deal to say. Oddly, one of the first things she told Tiz was the most absurd. "Imagine a Tree..."

-o-

5.9 [Drakohahn]

"Sir Rusty!" A young woman with long brown hair in an orange one piece bodysuit with a long sleeved poofy shirt underneath it declared in admonishment of her protector. He flinched at the name, since he had managed to avoid it being mentioned until now.

"Not one word, Thief." The robust knight in his clanking armor stated in warning. Zidane merely smirked in response. After all, there was going to be plenty of time teasing him about it later.

-o-

5.10 [Joy22]

Tidus sighed.

He had fair shares of weird loops in his life.

This is the first time he looped into his dad's era.

At first, he thought in was just the standard Pilgrimage loops, that is until his drunken father punched him in the face.

"D-d-dad?" Tidus squawked .

"Daaaaad?" he slurred "Whatever are you talking about? I have a son but he was...this...tall." Jecht took a good look at the person he just punched.

"So! You're Jecht's son huh?" Braska chirped "Also from Zanarkand?"

"Yes sir." Tidus replied to his would-be-father-in-law, grimacing as he saw his future girlfriend, still a child, clinging to her father, and memories of their honeymoon.

It doesn't mix well.

"Please, just call me Braska." he chuckled affably "You seems to be capable," Braska continued, unaware of his inner turmoil "How about it Auron? Why don't we let him join us?"

"He doesn't seem to be a drunkard like his father, he can come if he promises not to spout things about the Holy City," his non-looping mentor stated.

So, he has a chance to made Eternal Calm ten years early. Now, if he could find a way to break the news that they have to fight Yu Yevon, who is still a respectable, god-figure. And keeping his father in line, judging from the look Auron gave him.

Tidus huffed. _It's gonna be a long loop._ _I hope my Anchor wakes up soon. I don't want to deal with a stealth Looper._

 _-o-_

5.11 [Drakohahn]

 _Ow_ , was the only thing Kira could think at the moment. That's kind of what it feels like to get steamrolled. _Sometimes, sticking to native Loop abilities hurts._

It had been going relatively well up to then, though definitely not what Kira would consider a good time. The Tantalus performance ended up with the Queen shooting a fiery Bomb monster at the airship, causing it to crash into the feral bog called the Forest of Evil. Rescuing the Princess that had tried to stow aboard from the forest's controller, the Plant Brain, resulted in the entire area becoming petrified; which included Athrun, who had been caught by a monster after taking a hit meant for Kira. After that, Kira and his group had to fight their way through the Ice Cavern, which was even colder than its name sounded. Especially with the crazy Black Waltz that had been trying to kidnap the princess.

While it got rather crazy at the village they had stopped at, they made it through there just fine. Even the arrival of successive Black Waltzes didn't slow them down too much. The Festival of the Hunt at Lindblum was next and oddly, rather enjoyable despite the fact that it was a bunch of people going around and slaying vicious beasts released all over the city. Kira had ended up winning it after defeating that Zaghnol creature.

Then it all went to hell when a wounded soldier came limping in. The Burmecian soldier died shortly after arriving and asking for help as his kingdom had been attacked. The Regent of Lindblum, Cid who was currently transformed into a giant native insect creature, insisted on everyone enjoying the banquet while his military forces gathered. Princess Lacus put sleeping weed in the food without anyone noticing... somehow... and ran off while everyone dozed with her knight, Sir La Flaga, in tow. Kira found himself rather annoyed that they weren't awake yet and they had managed to pull one over on him.

So Kira and his companions, Vivi the Black Mage and Unawake Murrue Ramius the Burmecian Dragon Knight, gave chase. They tried at a Chocobo's Forest, but the moogle there hadn't seen the young woman Kira described to him. He tried again at the Qu's Marsh, but found no lead while picking up the gourmand, Quina, as a traveling companion. With no other leads, the group of four headed towards Burmecia through the Burmecian temple, Gizamaluke's Grotto.

He got ticked off when they discovered the massive, winged serpent, Master Gizamaluke, had become dominated and they had to fight him. It made him swear to look into ways to break mind control as they defeated him. Kira couldn't tell if the battle had killed Gizamaluke or not, but they couldn't stay to find out as the group needed to check on Burmecia.

They rescued the survivors of the City of Eternal Rain while dealing with the enemy soldiers, mass produced Black Magi. But then they reached the palace and fought against the people responsible. Alexandria's Queen Brahne stood with her greatest general, an Unawake Natarle Badgiruel, and someone who Kira recognized as Canard Pars; a man with long, black hair and greyish eyes, though this one seemed more... effeminate than usual.

Anyway, to defend a Burmecian soldier who had confronted the invaders, Kira and his companions rushed out to engage them. The four of them put up a good fight against the one-eyed general, but eventually, she just blew them all away with a single attack. So they got to witness the Queen and her benefactor gloat as they all walked off.

Kira struggled to his feet after they left with only one thought in mind, _Next time, I don't hold as much back._

After the group had recovered from the defeat, they made their way to the maniacal's Queen's next target, the giant tree city of Cleyra. Normally, it was protected by a devastatingly powerful sandstorm that could abrade exposed flesh in seconds. However, it seemed like the sandstorm had gotten weak enough that Kira and his friends could enter it without much protection required.

It took all day, but eventually the group of four made it passed the sand and monsters to reach the city in the massive tree's canopy. They were greeted kindly by the inhabitants and were directed to the inn where they got food to eat and a place to sleep for the night. In the morning, the Burmecian Murrue went to the King to inform him of the impending attack by the Alexandrian Forces. Everyone else went about trying to find things to do while there: Viva sat down by the city's small lake and its waterfall, Quina went looking for more food... and Kira had to rescue Quina when s/he jumped into the swirling sandpit near the entrance of the city.

So yeah, he found some treasure thanks to that, but it was just him and the strange glutton had to fight their way back up the trunk again. By the time they made it back, the Antlion whose pit Quina jumped into was agitated something fierce by something. Kira wasn't sure what was going on, but he fought back when it attacked everyone present. Defeating that beast caused it to sink back into the sandy hole it lived in.

"This is an ill omen indeed," The Burmecian King worriedly stated. "The Antlion is a peaceful creature. For it to get so aggressive as to attack people..."

He let the implication hang in the silent air. Kira stepped forward a moment later.

"Alexandria's attack will be imminent. Is there any way to enhance the defense?"

The King looked to a giant harp with a glimmering red stone suspended over it.

"The Desert Star powers the sandstorm, which weakens overtime. To restore the flow of power, we shall perform the dance ritual that first called the swirling sands forth."

Several Cleyran maidens dressed in matching pink dresses entered the room, one of which took position by the harp.

"Lady Murrue, please join in the ritual," the King asked Murrue. "The power of a Dragon Knight added to the ritual will make the sandstorm stronger than ever."

Murrue nodded her consent at the request. Everyone else walked off to the left side of the room to avoid getting in the dancers' way. The replaced Burmecian took the position in front of the dancing formation, looking out of place in her red armor but obviously familiar with what she had to do. Then the music started.

Kira was blown away at the sheer skill of the dance and how easily the Sleeping Murrue integrated herself into the routine despite having never trained with the other dancers. With how close they had to get, any mistake could easily involve more than just the one who tripped yet despite the last minute replacement, they moved like they had trained together for years.

However, in the middle of the breathtaking ritual, the harp's strings abruptly snapped and the music stopped. The sandstorm outside disappeared in streams of bright light. As Kira watched, he had a very bad feeling about the situation.

-o-

5.12 (Chronopie)

"Tiz, can I talk to you, man to man?"

Agnes looked back at the two boys, concerned.

Tiz just waved her off. "Sure Ringabel, what's up?"

The older blond threw his arm around the younger man's shoulders "In private."

"What's wrong Ringabel?"

"You. Me. This. Airy. _Everything!_ "

"Ah."

"At first I thought someone had tampered with the crystals again, set off the Holy Pillar. Then I thought it was Airy somehow, since I went from beating her down back on my world, to back in Caldisla, and that little... rragh ... abomination was back. But you. You're different."

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, it was little things at first. You can cook better. You know where to go before we ask around. You're a little less shocked at the revelations. More confident in yourself, and less with your nose in Agnes' skirt. I didn't even notice initially." He sighed. "But while we spend four years together, before it all repeats itself, I have the memories of another eight months of following you three around, thwarting your plans and generally getting in the way. Do you get it? The way this you acts isn't the way the other you acts. So what's really going on?"

Tiz was pale. "Well, that's a long story. But if you've noticed, do you think Airy has too?"

Ringabel went white. The implications... "No. Well, I hope not."

"Phew. Anyway, I'll try keep this simple. It's not just our world, stuck in a four year loop. It's _every_ world. Right across the universe. See, there's a tree..."

-o-

5.13 [ThanosCradik]

Tifa and Aerith were leaning on each other trying hard not to laugh, though a few giggles slipped out. Cloud, the target of their mirth, could only cover _her_ face as the Anchor tried to disappear.

"Come on, girls. It's not that funny."

Tifa was the first to gain control. Kind of. "S-sorry, Cloud. But the fact that you're such a cute little girl is just too funny, especially considering that all the SOLDIERs this Loop are girls." And then she dissolved into giggles once more.

Aerith decided to add her opinion. "And hey! Now we have an excuse to dress you up in cute little dresses!"

"That never stopped you two before."

They ignored her as they started to talk with themselves. "Hey, you remember that dress we get him to wear during that mission? I beat that it would really look good on him now!"

"Hey, you're right! we'll need to remember to keep that after we deal with Don Corneo."

Cloud sighed as the two kept going. "Zack must never know about this."

-o-

5.14 Final Fantasy Senshi Part 2

The next day, after Cecil was done with school – Firion was unsure why he bothered with that when there were enemies to fight – they went to the Hikawa shrine to recruit another Sailor Senshi. He knew that Cecil was hoping that it was one of the native Loopers, but Firion had his doubts about that happening. There was no way that the loop was going to make things that easy, after all the loop had already stuck him in this stupid cat form.

Annoyingly, there were a whole bunch of stairs up to the shrine. He did find it was easier to climb stairs with four legs then with two, but still it was a lot of steps. At the top of all those stairs were two pillars with statues of some sort on them. What the statues were of he couldn't see, because they were so far up. Stupid cat body being so low down.

Cecil,who had no doubt seen this place many times before, had approached a young woman with green hair. "Are you feeling quite Awake?"

"I'm feeling a bit Loopy," she replied. "There are some benches over by the trees that are are fairly quiet. We can talk there."

Cecil nodded and they headed over. Two crows looked up from the seeds they were pecking at by the bench. One of them cocked his head in the direction of Firion looking at him sharply then they both flew off.

"I'm Terra Branford, Anchor for the Warring Triad Loop."

Cecil nodded courteously. "I'm Cecil Harvey, Anchor for the Mysidia Loop and this is is Firion."

"I'm the Anchor," Firion had no idea what his loop was called, so he just blurted out, "Wild Rose, the Wild Rose Loop."

"Alright, This is the Sailor Moon Loop," said Cecil "Yes, Sailor Moon is one of the Original Seven. I'm replacing her right now. This is not the first time this has happened, so I know a bit about this loop. First,Terra I should ask if you have anything you want to do this loop?"

Terra shook her head "Not really, I wouldn't mind finding out what I can about methods to get rid of mind control that my in-loop memories mention."

"You have problems with mind control in your loop, I take it."

Terra smiled without so much as a trace of happiness in it. "It won't be much help with the main time it is used though, because it happens right before I Awaken."

There was a formless sound and a man came flying out of nowhere – literally nowhere – skidded face first on the ground twice before colliding with a tree. Firion prowled over to the fallen man. The man had brown hair and was dressed in a blue shirt, a blue cape and even had a blue mask. He was mumbling something about getting the number of the chocobo who had run him over.

"Hey, I think he's a looper," Firion called out before deciding to see if he could cast cure in this form. He could. By the time Cecil and Terra got over there the man was mostly coherent.

"Where am I now?"

"Hikawa shrine in, I believe it is, the Sailor Moon Loop," said Terra.

"I didn't understand any of that," said the man shaking his head.

"Is time repeating for you?" asked Cecil.

The man's eyes went wide. "Yes are you... do you know why?"

"Well you see..." Cecil started giving the man the Welcome to the Multiverse Speech. Firion didn't need to hear that again, so he turned to Terra. "Celes mentioned you when we had a loop together."

"Oh, you were her little brother in that loop where she got the Zoom spell, weren't you?"

"Hey, we were twins you know," said Firion deciding to set the record straight.

xxx

"... So anyway Celes ended up recovering in bed for two weeks while me and dad went off to defeat Grandmaster Nimzo. Both Mom and Grandma were determined to teach her proper manners while she recovered."

Terra giggled. "She must have hated that."

Cecil came over. "There seems to be a possible problem. You see Bartz here is suppose to be Sailor Pluto. Him being here now means that we have broken from the baseline."

"Good," said Terra, "so what's the problem?"

Cecil looked rather surprised at Terra's reaction, but Firion remembered what Celes had said about her home loop and completely understand it. "Didn't you say that Pluto could be a problem herself if she wasn't Awake?"

You're right Firion, Guess I'm overthinking this."

"Well you are the leader. It's kinda your job."


	6. Chapter 6

Final Fantasy Infinite Loops

Chapter 6

Disclaimer: All of the Final Fantasy characters belong to Square Enix. The original idea for the infinite loops comes from Innortal and later codified by Saphroneth. OathtoOblivion started the Final Fantasy Loops thread and was the first compiler. I think that's every thing...Oh yes Spacebattles is who hosts the Infinite Loops threads.

-o-

6.1 [Tovath]

 _It is nice to travel somewhere for nothing more then to pick up a birthday present for a little girl named Pilika to give her father_ , thought Terra. Leknaat, the Anchor of this world, had told her there would be a war soon that her in-loop adopted brother would play an important role in and after that she would have a chance to relax. However the war hadn't started yet, so she could run an errand like this with her brother and his best friend, Jowy.

As they approached Toto village, she smelled smoke. _No._ She ran towards the town. All that was left of the village was burned timbers and collapsed roofs.

"What...what the..." said Jowy as he came up behind her.

Terra ran toward the sound of a child crying. Pilika was in front of the remains of her family's house. Terra held her close and gave a shoulder to cry on. Terra knew that is what she needed most right now.

"Da...da...daddy said go hide. So Pilika hide real good... so nobody find. But Pilika hear lots of noise. Very Scary noise. Very, very, very scary noise. So...so Pilika take a little peek."

Terra winched. The poor girl was just as traumatized as some of the children in Mobliz.

-o-

6.2 [ThanosCradik]

Cloud could only wish that the Loop could end already. Ever since it started, he'd been itching fiercely. Seeing Zach walk up to him was enough to take his mind off of the itch for a bit.

"So... uh, interesting Loop we got, huh?"

"Bawk bawk."

"Hey, I'm not going to laugh, okay. Just because you're a chocobo this time around doesn't mean I'll make fun of you."

" _Bawk._ "

" _This_ time. I won't make fun of you _this_ time."

Their conversation was interrupted as another chocobo strode up to them, this one wearing a black coat.

" _Heeey_ , Sephiroth." Now Zach had a harder time not laughing.

Cloud just stared at the newcomer, as he stared back.

"...bawk."

"Bawk bawk."

-o-

6.3 [Chronopie]

There was a trick to this, Alternis Dim was sure. On what he liked to call 'world 6', Airy knocked him for six, and he always awoke on 'world 5' without his Dark Knight asterisk. When he worked together with the 'world 6' versions of his friends, they could even knock Airy dangerously low. Only, the others didn't trust him. Whoever was playing the white mage was always reluctant to drop him a heal, or a buff, and he had to resort to using _absorb magic_ against the occasional bind.

On the rare occasion that it was Edea playing the white mage - she really was not suited to the role - she at least healed him freely. On those attempts, Airy mutated into her second form, the bizarre pupae, and blasted the party with the entire gamut of elements. The party of three almost never had a spiritmaster - too many roles, too few members - and he was stuck in his Dark Knight asterisk, and the Dark Knight asterisk alone.

While _absorb magic_ prevented Airy killing him with the elemental onslaught, it was never able to protect the others - and she'd just knock him overboard to get him out of the picture.

And, once again, he'd awake on 'world 5' with nothing.

But one day, one day, he'd have access to more than just the Dark Knight asterisk, and he'd stop her right there...

But that wouldn't work either.

Alternis Dim hated this. It was a catch-22 situation. Encourage Agnes to shatter a crystal, and Airy would snap, and at least try to slaughter them all, and when they kill her it turns out that the big bad behind her, Ouroboros, would simply send another pet along to pick up where she left off - once the crystal shard regenerated of course. It didn't solve the problem, merely pushed it off onto someone else.

Play along to Airy's ends, and she gloated that she fooled everyone, despite it being blatantly obvious worlds in advance, and fight a near hopeless battle with a nigh-immortal, endlessly regenerating _thing_ from beyond the stars. Until Lord DeRosso sacrificed himself to seal it's healing, and it resorted to consuming entire worlds to sustain itself.

And that wasn't really acceptable.

One day, Alternis Dim would find out how to save every version of his friends. And one day, Alternis Dim would find out how to take the fight to Ouroboros with having to sacrifice countless lives.

But this was, unfortunately, not that day.

-o-

6.4 [Slayst].

The Red Wings, Baron's airship fleet, was just returning from a dubiously crucial mission.

They had invaded the town of Mysidia, slain many of its inhabitants, and stolen a national treasure, the water crystal, from its resting place.

Captain Harvey, leader of the Red Wings, was puzzled. Like his men, he couldn't understand why their king had made they undergo such an operation. Why make a hostile move on innocent civilians? The king couldn't seriously expect this to go unpunished by other countries? And what was the crystal for?

Suspicion arose in the young general, as he stood, unmoving, watching the passing clouds from his flying vessel.

That's when Jak Awoke.

The Anchor took a few seconds to register that he wasn't in Sandover, nor in Haven City.

It could only mean one thing.

"Fused loop." he sighed.

He had almost started to believe that his Admin had joked about them.

He turned to a nearby soldier and was about to call for him when he received his in-loop memories, and they made him growled.

"Great, I just murdered civilians… and I'm corrupted by darkness."

He hoped there was a way to get rid of it, or he would be going all Light Jak on the loop.

But that would have to wait. Something was definitely wrong with the king, and figuring out what was top priority.

Now, what to do about this crystal?

An incendiary bomb, that damn signet was an incendiary bomb.

He had played with explosives for years now, he should have been able to recognize it at first glance… or by smell, in this case.

But he hadn't, and more innocents had died.

That was it, the king was either completely mad or manipulated by someone else, he had to be stopped. But before that…

Jak grabbed the wounded girl in his arms and took off toward the nearest town.

Saving her was more important."What the…"

Okay, this loop was just ridiculous.

Guards sent after Rydia, the young summoner, hadn't questioned theirs orders. He knew those men, he had trained them, or his unawake self had… why weren't they reacting? You didn't have to be a genius to understand that something was wrong with killing a young girl whose only fault had been to defend her home against her mother's murderers. Jak had been forced to take them down, though he'd done so with clenched jaws and a sour taste in his throat.

Things had gotten even worse when Rosa, supposedly his love interest for the loop, had contracted Sand Fever. The search for the cure to this disease had led them to the city of Damcyan, where they'd witnessed the theft of the fire crystal by the Red Wings' new Commander, a man named Golbez.

Edward, new king of Damcyan, had joined their party and helped them retrieve the Sand Pearl, in the Antillon's Den.

Rosa cured, they'd all traveled to Fabul, hoping to prevent Baron from obtaining yet another crystal.

They'd failed, badly. Kain had left with the air crystal, and Golbez had kidnapped Rosa.

Jak and his remaining allies had then attempted to travel to Baron, where they would have sneaked into the city.

It wasn't meant to be, as their boat had been attacked by Leviathan. Jak had ended up shipwrecked on a beach, alone, Rydia, Edward and Yang blown away by the waves.

He'd finally managed to reach a city a little over an hour ago, only to discovered that it was Mysidia, the town he'd stolen the water crystal from. The inhabitants were rather… bitter.

The Anchor wanted to curse, but he couldn't do that, given the state he was in. He puked once again, emptying his bowel of the nauseous feeling induced by the succession of poison, frog and pig spells.

That loop was getting on his nerves.

Jak dropped his sword and fell face first on the ground.

Facing his inner darkness wasn't a pleasant experience. Especially with said inner darkness adapting to his looper's status and gaining additional traits from his original dark persona.

But he'd prevailed, and he'd managed to cleanse his soul of yet another evil. He only hoped that other fused loops wouldn't sent him on other purifying experiences, he didn't know if he could stand this kind of thing for long.

The new Paladin sighed loudly.

Who was he kidding, of course the loops would screw with him…

Damn tree.

Jak eyed the Lunar whale with suspicion. The thing disturbingly reminded him of an oversized rift ride. It looked nothing the same, but he had the same gut feeling when he looked at it. Something bad awaited them on the moon.

Yes, he was about to take a ship to the moon.

He really wanted to sigh, but the others had complained that he was doing it way too frequently.

So, if he had understood correctly, Zeromus had been the hatred born from Zemus, who had possessed his in-loop brother Theodor, who had himself controlled a large number of other persons, including members of his own party…

There had to be a limit to the number of successive mind controls, right?

Anyway, this threat was gone for good now, and the world was finally at peace.

But for how long?

Probably not that much, with what he was about to do.

"Hey Jak, Cid said you asked for me." said the white mage cheerily, entering the royal quarters.

"Rosa, we… we need to talk."

Her face fell.

The looper began to explain that he couldn't be with her, that he loved another woman… and the loop ended abruptly.

The teary face of Rosa Joanna Farrell was his last conscious memory.

-o-

6.5 [Tovath]

Alma Beoulve Awakened while doing embroidery and chatting with her friend Teta. She sent out a Ping without messing a stitch and started checking her in loop memories. There were two replies to her ping and a most interesting memory.

"Is something wrong Alma?"

She shook her head. "No Teta, I was just thinking about last time I saw Princess Lena.'

"Oh," Teta looked rather sad and Alma remembered that some of the girls at their boarding school had said that the princess must have not wanted to take classes with a commoner such as Teta. "I think I know why she left now. They will regret their rumor spreading."

The tavern was typical of its kind; dark smoky and full the smell of stale ale. "Why do you continue to associate with these thieves and malcontents, princess?" asked Agrias

"A ruler must know her subjects." replied Lena.

"That is an excellent sediment, but the king is not dead and the line of succession is not very clear. If you don't know and are known by the nobility, then you will never be made Queen," said Agrias " besides I can't protect you from everything. I don't want to find you dead in a gutter, because I wasn't fast enough."

Lena wasn't sure if she should be moved by her bodyguard's devotion or annoyed that Agrias still hadn't realized that Lena was a better fighter than her. However she had been planning to reveal her continued existence soon, after all Ramza should be Awake by now."Then let's head for Gariland Academy. Do you think they will let you teach there while I attend."

Agrias groaned, "I doubt they will let you attend."

-o-

6.6 [Tovath]

Celes was heading down to talk to Cid when the Magitek Research Center exploded. She took off running. _Is this some weird variant Loop?_ She definitely hoped not, having the rules of magic changed around on you when you had said magic was not fun.

As she reached the front gates of the Research Center that the destruction was not quite as bad as she first thought; A few holes had been punched in the roof, but it looked like one could still enter the building. "What's the situation?" she asked one of the soldiers at the gate.

He saluted. "General Chere, ten minutes ago there was a request for backup due to a problem with the draining tubes. Five minutes ago the explosions started. Neither the squad sent as backup or the squad sent to find out what was causing the explosions have returned."

Celes nodded "I'll have to find out myself then. Don't let anyone else past this point." She walked through the gate, but as soon as she was past she started running again. _This could only be an esper. Hopefully they wouldn't be too maddened by pain._

She was part of the way to the draining tubes when she heard the sounds of battle. Peering around the corner she could see Terra's father fighting four Imperial soldiers. He was not in the best shape, aside from general malnutrition, he also had a couple of stab wounds and a nasty slash on his chest. Behind him one of the walls a hole through it from either a explosive or a spell. Above she could see the sky peeking through another hole. As she watched the soldiers tried to rush him only to be stopped by a wall of fire.

She strode into the room."Fall back men." The soldiers did so quickly. "Go report in at the gate. I will handle this." She made sure to sound confident and commanding so they wouldn't think to question her order, even though she didn't feel confident. She wasn't sure how to deal with this. There was no way she would kill Maduin, but what reason would he have to listen to her.

"Are you Awake?" he asked

She had not been expecting that. Things being easier than she thought **never** happened."I am feeling a bit loopy." She looked up at the hole in the roof. "I know a spell that will get us out of here."

Terra was surprised to see Celes waiting for them at the Returner Hideout. "I thought you were going to see if you could find out about your family this loop?"

"Plans change." said Celes, most people would think she was being curt and rather cold, but Terra could tell her friend was really happy about something "Follow me."

She followed Celes back to the room she usually stayed in while here. Her father was there. "Guess who is now Looping?"

The two of them talked for several hours. Terra told him about some notable loops she had been in and he told her about his one loop.

"So anyway Eiko asked me to give you a letter from her." He pulled a letter out of his subspace pocket.

"Great," said Terra, "Umm, could you read it to me? I never got a chance to learn."

"Of course," her father said, "After that I am going to teach you to read though."

-o-

6.7 [FTKnight]

Cloud sighed as he once again found himself facing the prospect of crossdressing to infiltrate Don Corneo's mansion. Usually he could either avoid this, figure a way around Don's guards.

"Why me?" He muttered under his breath, as stared at the dress, It shimmered in the soft light of the shop. He already knew that would fit him 'perfectly', and that would not bother him if not for the fact it was incredibly comfortable.

[SirKald]

Red XIII stared. It had been a mostly normal Loop up until now. Wake up, ignore Hojo, play checkers with an Unawake Aerith once she arrived, and so on.

He discreetly cast Esuna on himself. Sadly, his hopes that Hojo had somehow managed to slip him a hallucinogen were dashed.

"Boy, why the hell are you wearing a dress?"

Red could have wept with joy at those words. Everyone else in the world seemed to not notice Cloud's clothing and he was too polite to ask on his own; thank the Planet for that irascible old bastard Cid.

Cloud blinked owlishly at the older man. "Why wouldn't I?"

That seemed to put Cid on the back foot. "Er, doesn't it restrict your freedom of movement?"

"Not at all!" Cloud explained happily. "See, I've got a slit on the side up to my hip, so I'm not any more restricted than I would be in a large jacket."

"And the heels? Don't you lose your balance in those things?" Cid asked.

"Mako infusion gives me enhanced everything, and that includes balance. I could run across a tightrope in a hurricane without falling, heels are nothing in comparison. Besides, they make me taller so I can see further," Cloud said.

Cid nodded with a dubious expression on his face. "Fine, fine. What about the earrings, are they used for extra Materia storage or something?"

Cloud shook his head. "No, that's just to make me feel pretty."

That was, in fact, Cloud standing before him. He was for some unfathomable reason wearing a slinky dress and five inch stiletto heels, but it was nevertheless Cloud.

-o-

6.8[Facepalmist]

At the field of flowers near Edea's House...

"Rinoa... Just stay close to me," Squall told her.

Rinoa suddenly giggled. "Oh... Those words!"

"What?"

"That's what started everything," she said.

Squall blinked. "What are you talking about?"

"You don't remember?" Rinoa demanded.

"Something I said?" She opened her mouth to snap at him. "Really? I could swear I said something different..."

The Sorceress stood there frozen as Squall pulled out several notepads, flicking through them while mumbling. "Aha! Here it is... 'Better get going.' Yeah, that makes sense." He paused as he was putting the other pads away. "I should have kept that in mind. How much time did I waste lazing round in bed...?"

Rinoa answered with exaggerated calmness, "...You did say that. But THAT didn't start everything."

"...Huh." He flicked through the notepad again. "Uh, 'I may end up killing Seifer.' Yeah, that could fit..."

Her teeth flashed in a rictus-like smile, pressed tightly together. "No, that's not it..."

"Hm. 'It's all up to Irvine'?"

"No."

"'Just be ready to back me up'?"

"No!"

"'I haven't forgotten your order'?"

"No- Wait!" Rinoa stopped grinding her teeth, finally seeing some light at the end of the tunnel. "You said it RIGHT after that!"

Squall squinted at his notepad. "'Stay cool, Timmy?' ...What's that got to do with starting anything?"

The apoplectic Sorceress growled, stormed forward and snatched the pad out of Squall's hand. "Squall, how could you misspell THAT of all things!? How hard can it be to... t-to..."

Rinoa fell silent, staring helplessly at the page. There was no misspelling. There were no words to misspell. There was, however, some rather well-drawn sketches. Of her and Squall. Of her and Squall doing... _things_.

Her head tilted of its own volition. Her eyes burned, and yet...she couldn't look away...and kinda didn't want to...

"Well?" Squall asked, blinking innocently down at her and scrupulously not laughing.

-o-

6.9 [Arc_Zephyr]

"Princess?"

Now Garnet wasn't new to the Loops or anything, but this was probably the first time that she had Woke up wearing a dress. Taking a moment to scan the plush room that she was sitting in with her three eyes, Garnet took a moment to let her Loop memories settle in before she addressed the man in armor who was talking to her. From what her loop memories told her, Garnet was able to gather that in this loop she actually was a princess. Specifically she was apparently the princess of a country called Alexandria and apparently it was her unawake self's sixteenth birthday. Sending out a ping on instinct, Garnet pushed herself up off of what was supposed to be her bed this Loop. As she walked around the plush room, the fusion of Ruby and Sapphire received four pings back. While she couldn't tell where the other three came from, it seemed that one of the pings came from the knight, Steiner if her loop memories were correct, standing guard at the door.

"Are you Awake now? The play starts in an hour," Came the loud voice of the knight as Garnet began walking his way.

"Yes, I'm feeling quite Loopy. I'm Garnet of the Crystal Gems. What can you tell me about this place?" The gem asked as she tried to focus on her future vision to check for any surprises to come, but to her surprise the results she received were blurry at best. Huh it looked like she wasn't going to be able to accurately rely on her future vision this Loop. That was merely a minor annoyance in the grand scheme of things though. It was a bit of a novelty, not knowing the potential outcomes of future events. A lot of variables could throw off the results potentially after all.

"Ah, well I'm Captain Adelbert Steiner of the Pluto Knights. Welcome to the Gaia branch of the Loops, Lady Garnet." Steiner introduced loudly as his armor clanked together when he moved. "It's interesting. The person you've swapped places with is also named Garnet." He mused with his hand to his chin as if stroking an imaginary beard. The moment the formality of introductions were out of the way, Steiner began to explain to Garnet about this Fused Loop. Though she did insist after a few minutes not to know what the baseline was like, Steiner still stressed the importance of the play he mentioned. She had to admit that the idea of border crossing was interesting to say the least.

Steven had to admit that he usually didn't Wake up like this when he Woke up to a Loop. For starters he was lying face first on a cobble stone walkway. Pushing himself up off the ground as small children with red balloons in their hands played in the street, Steven took a moment to adjust to his surroundings. This place was decidedly not Beach City. The last time he checked Beach City wasn't a castle town with stone walkways after all. Was this some kind of Variant where he and the Crystal Gems lived in a different century. Taking the moment to check his Loop memories, Steven decided that this was more likely a Fused Loop. The name of this city reminded him of a game that he was able to play in a Hub Loop. It was something ending in IX, but he couldn't exactly remember what it was.

According to his Loop memories he was a young boy who was entering the city of Alexandria to watch the play 'I Want to Be Your Canary' after his grandfather died. That was decidedly sad in his book. Steven wasn't really sure what he would do if his dad or any of the Crystal Gems ever died so he really felt for his unawake self. Taking a moment to see if there were any physical changes to his body this Loop, Steven gazed into a nearby puddle. For the most part he didn't look like he changed much, but there were a few details that stuck out to him. Instead of his usual pink shirt with the star on it and jean shorts combo, Steven found himself wearing a pink jacket that only exposed his Gem and blue pants that were decorated with star patterns. It seemed like he was going barefoot this loop and he had to admit that the big tan hat covering his hair was a nice touch.

"This should be a fun Loop," He stated as he stared at the ticket in his possession. He wasn't sure where going to see the play would take him this loop, but at the very least it was sure to be fun right?

-o-

6.10 {DrTempo]

It was yet another Loop. Yuna and Tidus were relaxing after Tidus had helped the Aurochs defeat the Goers. "Hey, Yuna. Ya know, I was just remembering how we learned of the Loops."

"Yeah. That was an interesting experience..."

Several Loops ago...

Yuna watched the game between the Aurochs and the Goers closely. Through all these odd repeats, the game was never played the exact same way twice. However, what was on her mind was that in the memories she had of this repeat, Auron was replaced by a man named Ichigo.

Odd. Why this difference? Everything else is the same...

The fiends began their attack on Luca right after she'd pondered this (The Aurochs had won this time,) and she prepared herself for the battle. A black-clad figure then leaped in front of her and slashed a fiend to bits. Yuna smiled, and used a Thundaga spell to take out another fiend.

"Thank you, Sir Ichigo." The aforementioned man smirked. "You should be more Awake for such things, Yuna." Noting the way Ichigo had said 'Awake', like it meant more than not being asleep, confused her. As did him attacking Seymour, beating him like the Maester was but an ant to him.

Ichigo knows something. I'll ask him what is going on later.

After all that was settled, the group prepared to exit Luca, and Yuna frowned for a second. Tidus suddenly staggered, and asked her a surprising question.

"Uh.. who's the guy that squashed Seymour?"

Yuna smiled.

"Whomever he is, he's strong. I think he might even be stronger than anything we've ever seen."

Someone walked towards them while they were talking. Tidus quickly drew his sword.

"Someone mention me a minute ago?" Ichigo walked up to the duo, and said, "Let me guess. You two experiencing the same events over and over again?"

Yuna and Tidus nodded, making Ichigo inquire, "Who's had this happen more often?" Tidus angrily retorted, "Yuna has been at this longer than I have. But I have something to ask...WHERE'S AURON?", and then charged at Ichigo with his sword drawn.

As Ichigo knocked Tidus down with ease, Yuna said, "Sorry about that, Ichigo. You know why time's resetting, I take it?"

Ichigo nodded. "Well, time for explainations. You see.."

After Ichigo finished his story, Yuna was deep in thought again.

Time is repeating again and again..And I'm the one 'Anchoring' Spira. Well, best grin and bear it. I've done it before.

Tidus, meanwhile, had a bewildered expression. "PLEASE tell me other Loops have Blitzball!"

Ichigo facefaulted, and Yuna couldn't help but giggle.

At least I know how to keep my inventory with me next time around. Sin won't stand a chance! Things will be different from now on, that's for sure!

...

The two smiled as they recalled that Loop. Ichigo had literally sliced Sin to ribbons with one attack.

Tidus then grinned. "That was a heck of an experience. I'm just glad no fiends showed up after the game."

Yuna chuckled. "Don't worry about that. I made sure that wouldn't happen. Let's just say we won't have to worry about Seymour this Loop."

Tidus laughed. Finding ways to defeat Seymour was a favorite hobby of his. "Good. I really hate that guy. So, now what?"

Yuna smiled. "I have no idea. But, I know one thing. We have all the time in the world."

"We sure do, Yuna."

-o-

6.11 [Chronopie]

"Well this is different." Tis Arrior said, as she punched the Goblin twice. And then a third time. "Oh damn it, I'm going to have to deal with Ringabel like this."

Elsewhere, Alternia 'Ringabelle' Dim shook out her long blonde hair as she tried make sense of her memories. He'd fallen into the Pillar of Light and then... woke up as a She. What had Airy done to him?

They'd beaten Ouroboros, that was, Agnes, Tiz, Edea, and he, and then he'd gone back to his own world, where Airy's wings had borne a '6', and, as his Dark Knight persona, tried to take down the monstrous Airy. She'd backhanded him into the still activate pillar with her dying breath. And now he was a she.

On the upside, 'Ringabelle' could openly walk into the girls changing rooms. Yay for eyecandy.

Agni scowled. Cloud had told her - him - that this could happen occasionally. In this world, 'Vestals' were instead 'Augurs', whom both worshiped the Crystals and received visions from them... And were all male.

How Tiz and Ringabel managed to walk around with... everything below the belt getting in the way all the time, she had no idea.

On the other hand, she had more strength like this than she did in her normal body, since her memories informed her that as an 'Augur', the physical form was just as important as the worship of the crystals itself. In other words, she had muscles this time.

-o-

6.12 Final Fantasy IX / Digimon Frontier [Opus J]

The stumble he made upon awakening was the first thing to catch Tommy's attention. It wasn't that often that he woke up in mid-stride, so he knew something was off. His eyes, darting around furtively noticed the stone buildings were not the standard Digimon design, (and coincidentally calmed him down as he realized he was safe from HER.) They were very nice houses, though, huge and well put together, designed to shrug off all the elements could throw at them. It was the castle ahead in the distance that really made it sink in - after all, one digimon or another would have pulled the giant sword out of the castle long before now.

He kept walking, despite bumps and jostling, keeping on the path to the spacious building, until everybody nearby had vanished, then he walked over to a nearby puddle and looked at his reflection. He blinked as he saw himself - white and fuzzy, dressed in baggy green pants and a dark green jacket that seemed huge. His trademark orange hat was on his head, but a blue... Pom-pom for lack of better terms was coming out of it (and was attached to his head). A pair of handguns, popguns almost, were at his waist for self defense. He starred at the ludicrous image before him for a moment, then let the first word that came to his mind out. "Kupo...".

Zidane knew something was off from the moment the Troop began "I Want To Be Your Canary" on the stage. He hadn't been entirely sure what it was, but as usual, had been too busy to ping anyone. When he ran into the little black mage asking him to deliver mail, though, he knew that it was going to be a strange one. Dagger wasn't Awake, so he had to chase after her. Steiner, however, was Awake, as he was wearing the locket Beatrix had given him during one of their many courtship rituals. (None of them topped the time that a female Steiner had wooed a male Betrix, though. That had produced SO much blackmail...)

Everything went sideways when they reached the Prima Vista, though. Vivi had learned enough that he could keep the play going by being a moment of bizarre humor overlaying tragedy. The Moogle that ran on deck, however, obviously did not. The chaos and battle quickly became general, as he fought off pursuing not just the new player, but the princess as well. The Moogle was apparently a crack shot, and took up Vivi's distance battle style without needing to be told. Unfortunately, the Elephant Queen, as with every time she thought Dagger might escape, Fired off the bomb at them, and even when all of them had worked together, it still caused the airship to crash in the accursed forest.

As the world came back into focus, Tommy seriously questioned using the memories he had received as a guideline any more. Ending up trapped in a living plant-cage hybrid had landed in the top ten strangest things that had happened to him so far. Depressingly, he was fairly certain that it wouldn't stay there. That said, his head hurt, and it felt like he had been given a shot in his left shoulder. As his eyes finally cleared, he realized he wasn't alone. "Kupo... I mean, Hi." Tommy said

"Good evening to you too, kid." The grinning, teen with the tail of a monkey said in reply. "I'd say that you were right the first time, but I doubt you're from this loop. I'm Zidane, and this here is Rusty." He dodged a swipe at his head from a man in armor next to him.

"It's Steiner, you lowly pickpocket." Shaking his head in exasperation, though he could see that the two were friends. "And what shall we call you, young Moogle?"

"Tommy, sir." He paused for a moment. "Loop?" The terminology confused him.

The two in front of him shared a look that spoke volumes. "We'll tell you on the way to save Dagger - a friend in danger." Zidane explained as Tommy's eyes scrunched in confusion.

"Alright, Kupo." Tommy started to rise for a moment, then paused. "The 'kupo' thing is going to get old..."

Zidane snickered. "Probably so. Ready to go?" At Tommy's nod, he helped him out of bed, handed him his guns and led the way out into the forest.

One battle with a giant plant monster followed, where Tommy showed that he could infuse ice magic into his own shots, and after the frenetic escape from the petrified forest (which included Tommy riding Steiner's shoulder and blasting enemies behind them) they finally had time to talk - and Zidane was able to give his first 'Welcome to the Multiverse' speech. He also discovered that Tommy had looped a couple of dozen times, and though he wasn't the Anchor, was at least one of the earlier loopers (or so he assumed.) He also had at least one looper of questionable sanity, whom he had once called friend, but was now highly uncertain about.

"So this is a Fused Loop?" Tommy asked him to try and wrap his head around everything.

Zidane nodded. "Yep. And you're replacing a friend of mine named Vivi. Our loop usually lasts about five years, so we've got time to start teaching you a few tricks." Reaching into his own pocket he pulled out a thick copy of 'I Want to be Your Canary', and tossed it to the boy, who caught it - and then was knocked over by the weight. "Don't worry, we've got plenty of time to work on this... while avoiding deathtraps and savage monsters."

Tommy did not look reassured.

The Ice Caverns went smoothly at first. Steiner had long since figured out how to use his 'Magic Sword' techniques, and melted any walls in their path. Chests were opened, treasure recovered, and a new pair of revolvers were gifted to Tommy. Running into a married pair of Black Mages was hilarious. Then Tommy and Dagger dropped off, frozen by wicked magic, and he and Zidane ran into... not a black waltz.

"I am the first movement of the Sonata. Moonlight Sonata!" The grinning, Gigantic Moogle, with it's enormous pink bat wings, made him wish for the waltz. He flew almost constantly, and was wielding a pair of Cannons constantly spewing grapeshot in a way that made him seem like a 40K Orc - the only phrases he seemed to understand were 'Open Fire' and 'More Dakka!'. It wasn't lethal, not for a pair as experienced as them, but it Hurt.

Another shot hit his armor, knocking some of the breath out of him, and he decided enough was enough. He traced Excalibur II - and threw it, ending the battle with a bang. Zidane, who had seen it coming and had run behind him, took a moment to catch his breath. "Not... Fun." He wheezed out

Steiner was quiet when he spoke. "I'm starting to dread the town ahead."

Zidane, serious for once, said, "Me too, Steiner."

-o-

6.13 [Facepalmist]

Cloud walked out of the remote chalet scratching his head, followed by Barret and Cait Sith as he joined the rest of AVALANCHE's party by the airship.

"It's empty," the party's leader told them. "The hearth was still warm, and there was a chocobo. But other than that... Maybe they're just out somewhere nearby." He shrugged, then brightened as he pulled out a pearlescent sunny sphere. "The chocobo gave me a Materia, though."

The materia was promptly yoinked out of his hand by Yuffie, who examined it with avaricious glee before proclaiming it a new (and rare!) Enemy Skill Materia. Unnoticed, Tifa's eyes narrowed.

"Maybe they're just shy," Tifa said, cutting off any suggestions of staying at the chalet for the night before they could be spoken. "I think I'll go inside again and take a look. Maybe they're just hiding or something..."

"Tifa...?"

Tifa smiled at Cloud. "Just wait here, or go and look around the area outside. If they're hiding inside, we shouldn't spook them. I'll be fine," she added as she headed through the door.

–-

She looked around the chalet's darkened interior. Cloud had been right enough, she could detect a certain radiance from the hearth but the building otherwise looked deserted. The only thing out of place was a foot-cubed box tucked up against the railing along the upper level, but that was too small to hide anything sapient short of a Cait Sith doll - and it was open anyway (because Cloud, her lil' blond kleptomaniac).

Yep, _looked_ deserted. But she'd been around long enough to pick up a sense of when she was being watched.

"I don't suppose you'd happen to know where I can find an Anchor?" she called. "We seem to be missing one at the moment..."

Tifa waited for several increasingly awkward moments. Then the point of a hat emerged from the upper level.

"You see, my Anchor's missing this Loop. If there's another Anchor..." Tifa trailed off, punctuating her statement with a Ping.

"What do you want?" a wary male voice sounded from above. Strangely, it didn't seem to sound from the direction of the hat.

"The person you're Replacing... he sells nuts and grass for breeding chocobos. If you have that stuff here, I don't suppose you'd be willing to trade?"

The hat edged back of sight. Then the cardboard box ruptured and fell apart as the man climbed out of...what turned out to be his Pocket.

Tifa scrutinized the man, who looked absolutely nothing like any iteration of the Chocobo Sage she'd ever seen. (Though to be fair, very few people tended to look like a big floating purple blob with a mustache.) Tatty red robes hanging over a gaunt frame, a wispy beard, eyes focused carefully on her as he edged over to retrieve his spare hat from the floor.

Tifa didn't bother with conjecture as to how he'd made it move, as any Looper who'd been around a while tended to pick up ways to do that kind of thing. What she _did_ note with interest was the pointy hat on his head - or more accurately, the sequins which (mis)spelled out his purported occupation for the world to see...

Really that told her all she needed to know. She grinned.

"So," Tifa asked, "are you in the market for materia? I think I've got a couple you might be interested in, if you haven't got some already..."

Tifa walked out of the chalet chuckling, the rest of the party forming up over near the airship's ramp as she approached them.

"Okay guys, we're good to go. He was in there, he was just scared at all the attention. But he was falling over himself to trade once I told him what we were after..." She shrugged with a happy laugh. Indeed the visiting Anchor had been glad to see Tifa's wares. "I got all the grass and nuts we can carry, and a copy of the guy's notes on how to use them too!"

Cloud nodded with satisfaction, then frowned. "That sounds great, but...what did you have to trade with him?"

"Never you mind, it was nothing we couldn't spare," Tifa reassured him. She punctuated this statement with a medium-strength punch to first Cid's and then Barret's guts before they could announce their no-doubt lewd speculations on what _precisely_ she had paid the Chocobo Sage with. "It seems we'll have to do some racing at the Gold Saucer to pull this off..."

She led the party up the ramp, AVALANCHE readying for a long air-trip back south...

Rincewind watched the party of nine (which was one more than normal for this point in the baseline of this place, if he remembered correctly) retreat from his chalet, and waited for several minutes. Then he slumped, widened his Pocket from the coin-sized aperture he'd used for surveillance, and clambered back out with his newly purchased items in hand and ready to equip.

The wizzard examined the pair of hard yellow balls Tifa Lockheart had traded to him for ninety-nine doses of each avian-issue vegetable variety the Chocobo Sage had stocked on hand. And he was very happy with this particular trade - sure, he _could_ have tried for a mere discount on the hefty price tag attached to said specialty nuts and grasses, but the Lifestream Loop was one he'd only visited once before and the gil they used as currency tended not to be interchangeable between the various loops of the Final Fantasy Branch. So the money meant very little to him - especially when compared to these lil' glass globes of joy.

(Any possible innuendo inherent to that thought shot right over Rincewind's head without the least bit of notice. Even over eons, his impressions of the fairer sex had somehow never budged from the original theme, which might best be described as: just one more thing to flee from. ***** )

The two orbs he lovingly (not to mention obliviously) fondled were invaluable commodities to a person of Rincewind's disposition. It was a true pity that the native Looper Tifa had only had a few in her Pocket, but that was perfectly understandable as far as he was concerned - especially the second one, which was quite rare given the difficulty of obtaining it in this world's baseline.

The first materia, called Exit, was rather easier to obtain...assuming you could get to Junon. One ability, or rather two abilities considering that both materia were fully developed. (He'd insisted on this - after all, new materia were developed by defeating opponents in battle, which was exactly the kind of situation that he was dead set on _avoiding_.) Escape, to teleport oneself away from any encounter with an antagonist to a safe location - and Remove, to teleport the antagonist away to...wherever. That materia was on sale in Rocket Town, a place he'd never had the opportunity to visit on any of his iterations spent in this Loop - not that he was in any way keen on delving into the mystical practicalities of other Loops until he one day mastered that of his own.

The second materia, called Enemy Away, could only be obtained by racing chocobos an entire continent away from where he was situated, or by trade with certain passing Loopers. A fully developed one like this acted like a S.E.P. field tuned to potential enemies as he understood it, letting him slip beneath the notice of... (he checked) ...about seven-eighths of all possible encounters. It wasn't as effective as the shield he'd picked up from the Spira Loop, but it was still nothing to sneeze at - and unlike the Exit materia, this one worked automatically without the need to cast anything.

Yep, definitely worth trading away all those greens.

(Well, most of them. He still had enough to feed the chocobo for a few decades. Maybe he'd take it with him...)

In the meantime, Rincewind fitted the pair of materia on the Diamond Armlet Tifa had traded him for a copy of the notes on dosage instructions he'd racked his brains to produce over the past few weeks, then fitted the ornamental armor with great care under his robe's sleeve. (One advantage over the Spira-made shield: a lot less obtrusive.) The wizzard felt a subtle tingle that told him the newly equipped materia were operative but remained quiescent until they were needed.

Rincewind let loose a relieved breath and relaxed.

A little.

Maybe.

...Well, as much as he ever did.

-o-

6.14 Final Fantasy Senshi Part 3 [Tovath]

Squall found it odd to look in the mirror and see an unscared face, but that was the least of the oddness. Apparently he was the only son of a doctor who was a serious workaholic and never home. He had gone out yesterday to reconnoiter, but as far as could tell there was no magic and no monsters. The world was not in peril in any way. That was weird. _Whatever_.

This morning there had been a note from his 'mother' asking why the school had said he was missing yesterday, so he figured he'd better show up there today instead of continuing to reconnoiter. It probably would be boring compared to the Garden training.

He had been right; The math and science classes were stuff he already knew and none of the others were worth bothering with. Teachers tried to find out why he had been gone yesterday. At lunch break a guy with long pale hair came up to him. "You feeling Loopy?"

So the guy was a Looper too. Well Squall knew what to tell him. "I'm well anchored."

"So am I," he said, as some boy with big glasses started to approach, "but it seems that we don't have time to talk right now. Can you come to the Hikawa shrine after school is over?"

Squall didn't have anything better to do after class, so he headed over tot the [name] shrine. He did want to find out what was going on with this loop. The guy met him in front of the stairs leading up to the shrine with a cat. "Sorry, I couldn't talk with you at lunch. I was afraid that Umino would try to listen in. He might be my best friend when I loop into here, but it is best he doesn't find out about the supernatural. I'm Cecil Harvey, Anchor for the Mysida Loop "

"And I'm Firion, Anchor of the Wild Rose Loop." said a voice down near Cecil's feet.

"The cat is an Anchor?"

"Yes and I am not usually a cat." said the cat – Firion as he started up the steps, "Now we need to meet up with Terra and Bartz."

Squall's in-loop memories was saying that the red sorta gate like thing at the top of the stairs was called a Torii and was meant to signify an entrance to the spirit world. But was it actually true in this world?

There was a green haired girl who was not half as pretty as Rinoa sitting on a bench under a tree

"My sister said that she liked to read outside under a tree in her last letter, so I thought I would try it." She held up the book which was about combating mind control and possessions or some such. Sounded interesting.

"Good we'll be needing that soon" Cecil pointed to him "This is Squall."

-o-

The rate the chapters come out will likely slow down after this chapter, since I have gotten through most of the back log.


	7. Chapter 7

Final Fantasy Infinite Loops

Chapter 7

Disclaimer: All of the Final Fantasy characters belong to Square Enix. The original idea for the infinite loops comes from Innortal and later was codified by Saphroneth. OathtoOblivion started the Final Fantasy Loops thread and was the first compiler. I think that's everything...Oh yes Spacebattles is who hosts the Infinite Loops threads.

-o-

7.1 [Tovath]

Odin had gathered every bit of code needed to activate the Dissidia part of the Final Fantasy branch. He knew that he was just in time: If this Activation didn't work the the branch would likely disintegrate into a bunch of corrupted data. Needless to say that would be catastrophic to all the active loops in the branch.

He would need to make sure it was well anchored. Fortunately he had some extra options, in the form of the anchors to the other Final Fantasy Loops. He would of course, have to weave the Remember Baseline patch into the activation. He know his loopers after all.

[SUB-BRANCH: FINAL FANTASY I]  
[BASELINE COMPILED]  
[SETTING ANCHOR]  
[ANCHOR SET]  
[SUB-BRANCH: ANCHOR: WARIOR OF LIGHT]  
[SUB-BRANCH: INITIALIZATION COMPLETE]  
[ACTIVATE SUB-BRANCH?]  
[YES/NO]

[YES]  
[SUB-BRANCH: ACTIVATED]  
[LOOP ITERATION: START]

. . .

-o-

7.2 [Tovath]

This loop was a nice change of pace for Terra. She had ended up in the Wild Rose Loop. The lack of any psychotic clowns was nice. Celes' brother, Firion was showing her around. The ability to use Firion's foreknowledge to save his allies in interesting ways, like now, was fun.

"Don't bother going the the tower to obtain Ultima, Minwu," said Terra.

"What do you mean by that?" shouted Princess Hilda "We need the power of Ultima to defeat Emperor Mateus."

Terra started on the story that she and Firion had worked out between them. "The Ultima spell that can be found there is incomplete. The whole place is actually a trap set up to catch those who desire power." It wouldn't surprise Terra to find out that this was actually true, but Firion had not found any proof of that. "The real Ultima spell has been handed down in the family of the sage who created it."

"Then we must find the descendant of this grand sage and ask them to aid us." proclaimed Hilda.

"Gladly," said Firion, with a hint of a smile, and turned to Terra, "Mind helping us out?"

"Of course I will."

-o-

7.3 (krspaceT)

Wedge Antilles, legendary space pilot and hero of the rebellion's Rogue Squadron, eyed his latest challenge.

He had mastered the transportations of 47 different loops.

He had bested unawake versions of Suzaku and Kallen in Knightmare frames (Though the awake ones were still better than he was), successfully captured all four of the Beastman General's person Gunmen for his own use for his last three visits to the world of the spirals, (Then modified them all to combine into a giant mecha to bash the Anti-Spirals with) and had mastered the art of Kart racing with Mario.

He no longer feared the Blue Shells from the Sky!

It was time to begin mastering his 48th, starting with this most dangerous vehicle...

He held out a bag of bird seed to the rather large yellow bird before him, who eyed it curiously.

He would tame and master this 'Chocobo', or he wouldn't master anything here at all!

-x-x-

Cloud Strife's life sucked even before the loops, though they did have the potential to be better.

The loop where Sephiroth had been nothing but a floating geranium in particular stood out to him.

But this time, the dice of fate rolled against him once more, seeing as he had some sort of vicious, two legged reptile choking him like some sort of Sith Lord.

What the hell was going on in those loops!? Who was the idiot who taught this damn thing how to choke people!?

As he continued to struggle against the beast's power, he heard a familiar sound coming towards him.

The sound of a Chocobo.

With a loud yell, a fighter pilot dressed man burst forth from the forest around him, riding a Chocobo with a pair of jousting spears in hand.

The Raptor hissed, dropping Cloud to the ground before turning to the rider in hungered curiosity.

"Your power" It hissed "It is...familiar..."

It then charged right at the dauntless Chocobo Knight, eager to do battle.

-x-x-

"So...who taught the Sith Raptor?"

Wedge Antilles, aired this question to a gathering of his fellow loopers next Eden Bar loop.

They all looked at him in confusion.

"The Sith what?" Luke inquired.

"I have a bad feeling about this" Obi-Wan sighed.

"Wasn't me" Anakin and Revan said in tandem.

-o-

7.4 [LostHereAndThere]

"I refuse."

Charon grimaced. One of the irritating ones.

"Let me make this perfectly clear: should you refuse my offer, you will linger here for as long as it takes for your number to come up. And believe me, mountains will crumble into dust far, far faster than that."

"You ask too high a price, ferryman. And I'm expected in the land of the living. So step aside or fall to my blade!"

Charon sighed as the drunk idiot drew the abomination he dared to call a sword. His own blindness did not disturb him in the slightest, nor did his lack of a weapon. He relaxed, following the blade's song as it cut through the air, rising as the swordsman prepared to put his entire weight in a killing strike at Charon's brainpan. As the sword fell in a perfect arc at his head, Charon sighed and smiled benevolently.

The blade crashed against the ferryman's forehead, and shattered.

The idiot barely managed to catch himself before landing, and stumbled into a crude defensive stance, cursing as he opened his Pocket and drew another of those horrors.

"You understand this means my fee will rise considerably."

Unfazed, Auron charged. Rolling his unseeing eyes, Charon made no move to dodge. Another blade was shattered. After that, the idiot tried hammers. Then guns. Then sorcery. Technology. Blends betwixt both. Charon just smiled indulgently as he kept to his paperwork. Whatever the swordsman did, he failed to damage the already grimy robes of the eternally-smiling ferryman or even shuffle the papers he was diligently filling.

"You are only going to get tired."

As the escapee-wannabe kept pounding at Charon with everything he had, the ferryman himself sighed in exasperation as he kept to his paperwork, barely noting the passage of time even as the minutes passed into hours, which bled into days, after which it all just melted Auron's brain into a sort of porridge. Best for the idiot to get it all out of his system. Next time it would go down easier. It was fools like this that made him regret being such a good civil servant. One did one's best to keep the books in order and then something like this came along. One of these days upper management really has to send someone to fix things down here. How many afterlives were just as horribly mismanaged as this Spira, he wondered. At least this idiot didn't seem as… enthusiastic as those monkey people. Last time he ever wanted to deal with aliens.

Oh well, looks like he finally got the hint.

Smirking, Charon stopped the exhausted Auron's lightsaber mid-swing, and casually extinguished the energy blade just like he would put a candle off. The broken weapon clattered next to the growing pile of shattered artifacts and spent cartridges. Gently, he pushed the swordsman, who fell with a minimum of fuss to the ground.

"I trust this lesson has been productive. I really don't know what kind of mess you're used to, but I assure you I shall not be nearly as lenient. My rules are simple. Pay and leave, or stay until your number comes. No nonsense like challenges, riddles, or unfinished business allowed here. Now, as for the payment…" The ferryman plucked a piece of paper from his robes, scribbled something, and presented it to the wheezing Auron.

Gingerly, the downed swordsman managed to pick the paper. "The hell is this? This ain't a number!"

"No, it's an equation. Far faster than writing the whole number."

Groaning, Auron slid a Bottomless Box at Charon's feet, hissing as the ferryman started fiddling with it. Truth be told, he had no idea of how much the ferryman was going to charge him. Bah. There was enough money and loot in that box to buy all of Spira more than fifty times over. As he recovered on the ground, Charon tossed him a few coins.

"What is this?"

"Your change."

Sputtering, tugging at his scalp, Auron scrambled to catch the money. Not even enough for a decent meal, let alone repair his swords, or get a room for the night… Millennia upon millennia of painfully building savings, all gone in a single blow. And there was not a single blessed thing he could do about it.

So this is what the damn duck felt like all the time.

"Do be careful though. My fees go up every time I do this, and you don't strike me as the tab type." Charon snorted as he deposited the box in his desk. "Now, before you complain, let me ask you: is money really worth that much to you? More than, say, your life itself? Money exists to be spent. What use is it to you gathering dust in the face of death?"

Balling his fists, hissing, Auron choked, even as he felt the familiar tug of the land of the living calling him: "What could you possibly need that much money for?"

Just then, the happy chime of a bicycle rang across the uneven banks of the Styx. A young girl waved at Charon, who gleefully received a package of food. The girl just stood there impassively as Charon loaded sack after sack of coins and gems into her basket. At the end, she oversaw the mound of valuables, nodded in satisfaction, and left the ferryman to his meal.

"…wat."

Charon arced an eyebrow as he sat to dig in as Auron faded into life.

"Do you have any idea of how much delivery costs here?"

Aika's. Anywhere. Anytime.

-o-

7.5 [Facepalmist]

[SUB-BRANCH: FINAL FANTASY XII]  
[BASELINE COMPILED]  
[SETTING ANCHOR]  
[ANCHOR SET]  
[SUB-BRANCH: ANCHOR: VAAN]  
[SUB-BRANCH: INITIALIZATION COMPLETE]  
[ACTIVATE SUB-BRANCH?]  
[YES/NO]

[YES]  
[SUB-BRANCH: ACTIVATED]  
[LOOP ITERATION: START]

All told, Vaan liked to think he actually reacted pretty calmly to Ivalice's entry into the Loops.

...Okay, absolute truth be told, Vaan hadn't reacted all THAT calmly - not at first, at least. When he'd blinked and Awoke for the first time, only to be confronted with a somewhat familiar trio of dire rats in a rather more familiar enclosure under the Dalmascan capital with an very familiar voice calling out to him to hurry up, only the two facts that (a) he was in combat, and (b) these were dire rats and so weren't particularly noteworthy otherwise, had postponed a well-deserved round of freaking out.

Vaan had absentmindedly stolen from and killed the rodents, then stumbled through the following conversation with Kytes pretty much on automatic. (The mental refresher-course which he would find out much later from a certain time-travelling avian was called 'Loop-memories' did help with this immensely.) It was after the younger streetrat had split for Migelo's and Vaan had stood there wondering what was going on and what exactly he should be doing about this that he'd realized something important.

That realization really did help put things into perspective. It ran thus:

"Hey, a guy's still gotta eat."

-x-x-

One trip to the Bazaar, two purloined fruits (one for Penelo...hey, it might work) and one gratuitous pickpocketing of an Imperial soldier later, things had become a bit clearer. If nothing else, it wasn't anything he hadn't seen before... literally. (That thought merited a snicker as he legged it from the scene.)

Tossing the extra fruit to Penelo worked...for about three seconds, until she realized how he'd got it. At least she ate it, even if she ate it while carrying off the laden, liberated pouch. And at least he'd managed to take a bit of gil out of said pouch and stash it elsewhere on his person before Penelo could swipe it off him.

Feeling that small bulge in the hidden pocket helped steady him. Things were happening like he remembered them happening before. But on the other hand, nothing said he couldn't take advantage of it!

-x-x-

Of course, once Vaan got out into the desert and realized that all his stuff he'd collected over the past year-and-a-bit was missing...again, he was kinda annoyed. But it was gratifying to feel those old skills he'd picked up back then coming back. That much was a relief - it was bad enough having to repeat everything as a weakling, but at least he wasn't an unskilled weakling...

So, he'd just have to start building himself up again. Vaan talked his way back into the city and visited the shops like he should've done the first time...for all the good that did him. He'd forgotten how bad the selection was in the early days. Then it was back out to the desert and settle down for a serious bout of looting...again, for all the good that did him. There was an escutcheon in one of the coffers this time though, so he helped himself to that.

Eventually, a lot more winded than he would have been at his prime, Vaan picked off the last living beast in the area: the Rogue Tomato Mark. Spotting a familiar clump of flowers, he approached and regarded them with a bittersweet smile.

"Galbana lilies... Huh. That takes me back..."

...Things really were a lot simpler back- now, weren't they? Back when Reks was still a seeping wound for the Occuria to pour their poison into, when Basch was Dalmasca's most heinous traitor, when all the Archadians were just faceless bastards with funny accents-

"Hey, there's an idea!"

Not the one about rescuing Basch. He'd be fine until Vaan and Balthier and Fran got there - which come to think of it, would give him a good excuse to try robbing the treasury again. Neat! No, this idea was more...immediate. Vaan picked the galbana lilies as a souvenir, and headed for the Outpost.

-x-x-

"Good afternoon, sir. I'm Vaan, representing Clan Centurio. Just to let you know, that pesky Mark that was blocking your way into Rabanastre? I just took it down. Along with everything else that could've given you trouble."

Even the wild saurian - which had not been fun to deal with in his currently weak state. Vaan had needed to resort to status effects he hadn't had the first time round to get the job done, and burned through most of his magick reserves to make them stick and stay alive long enough for them to take their toll. The task had not been made any easier by the fact that while his old magick skills were still there, they didn't always flow as smoothly or come to mind as effortlessly as he remembered them.

...So he was rusty. Oh well, just something else to brush up again.

"I was heading back to Rabanastre anyway," he continued, "so if you'd like to make ready and join me? The coast is completely clear for once, so there's no better time."

-x-x-

Attaching himself to the supply train? Now that worked. Kytes nearly ruined it by running up, but fortunately the younger streetrat caught the wave-off and the guard didn't spot it. The company Vaan was keeping, the Writ of Transit and the Clan Centurio Badge, all at once, got him past the gate. Not that it would have really mattered, what with Migelo coming in and pulling his 'brown-nose 'n throat-wetten' routine for Kytes' benefit. But it was nice to get through without his late brother's favourite flowers being stomped on by a smelly bird.

Just a little change, wouldn't really do anything. But still... somehow, it sunk in more than that extra bit of gil he'd managed to hide from Penelo. It meant more.

Honestly, most of the great sweeping movements of historical import had flown right over Vaan's head (apart from the ones that attacked his head on their way over). Ashe and Balthier and Basch and even young Larsa's minds had all moved in stately circles that Vaan had only the vaguest idea even existed. And for all that he'd felt left out of the loop a lot of the time... well, occasional complaints to the contrary, he didn't exactly care. All Vaan really wanted was to be in the sky - everything else would probably take care of itself.

But he'd still help out, because they were good friends to have...and helping them would also help get him back in the sky all the sooner. He could take the little victories in the meantime...

Oh, and maybe look less like a fool. Keeping his foot out of his mouth this time would be good.

-x-x-

Lady Ashelia B'Nargin Dalmasca, Dalmascan crown princess-in-exile, couldn't help but worry as she glanced over at Vaan. The apprentice sky pirate stared at the smoking tower of the Pharos, his visage twisted with such fierce emotion as she could never recall witnessing from him.

Vaan was truly a mystery to the princess. To all appearances he was nought but a streetrat of Rabanastre, an orphan among many - his sole dubious claim to prior renown lay in being the younger brother of one Reks, the short-lived Dalmascan Knight of the old Order who had survived barely long enough to relate his tale of Basch fon Ronsenburg's seeming treachery in person. Brash, ignorant, reckless, occasionally suffering a severe dearth of tact... and yet somehow, nothing ever seemed to faze him. He reminded her a great deal of the elder sky pirates Balthier (or was it Ffamran...? no matter - whoever he was, the native of Archades had embraced his alias in a way that Ashe herself never truly had) and Fran the viera, in that he could be surprisingly level-headed when local events turned for the worst.

...And then there was his daunting level of skill. As demonstrated the very first time they met. A more fortuitous first meeting she was hard-pressed to think of; even much later, having come to acquaint herself with the hunter and his many, many imperfections far better, the memory of how Vaan had stared into her eyes from less than a foot away even as he aimed a Darkga spell at her pursuers without even gracing them with a glance... Ahem, moving on from wasteful daydreams. His companion Penelo had been heard to speak with Basch of her childhood friend, and of how he had returned to Rabanastre a changed man following his maiden Hunt - a matter of mere hours before she herself had encountered him.

Ashe could not but feel thankful that the youth had decided to lend her his aid. Clearly Clan Centurio had recognized the boy's potential early and invested a great deal of effort into his training - his encyclopaedic knowledge of weapons, spells, technicks and tactics showed ever clearer as their travels progressed, and greatly eased said passage with the aid of his expertise in battle...and in geography of all things. And she could almost swear the boy had a treasure sense sometimes! And yet...

"You saw him, didn't you? Like at the king's tomb."

"So you did see him. But...why?"

Vaan stared into the distance, towards Rabanastre, for so long that she thought he would remain silent. But then: "...Vengeance. That's the one thing we have in common. Not the others, just us. Something wants us to take our vengeance. I'm sure of it..."

...How right he had been.

Perhaps it was that this was Vaan's first true loss amidst these new troubles. He had been surprisingly amiable in his dealings with not merely Larsa Solidor - understandable, after befriending the incognito 'Lamont' as they travelled into the mines of Lhusu - but Basch as well; one might have imagined far more initial friction between the boy and the man who had reportedly killed his brother. Words of vengeance aside, Ashe could only think that the passage of time must have soothed his ails well to have him reacting so calmly then.

In any case, his reaction to the loss of Reddas was certainly not calm. Perhaps it was but this, and not some new strangeness from this paradoxical youth to plague her thoughts. Perhaps..

-x-x-

To put it plainly, Vaan was kicking himself. He couldn't believe it - he'd actually forgotten about Reddas!

The top of the Pharos tower had once again been chaotic, what with Ashe turning away from revenge at the last minute, and Gabranth turning up for a fight, and 'Judge Magister Zecht' going the big reveal, and that asshole Cid cutting in, pinching the Dawn Shard and using it to fire up the Sun-Cryst. Really, it wasn't so much he forgot Reddas, as he forgot about that Dawn Shard. If only he'd remembered to grab the damned thing before Cid and Venat could get their hands on it...!

By the time Reddas had stayed Ashe's arm and stole the 'kill', and Vaan realized his mistake, it was already too late.

Vaan sighed. "Reddas..."

-o-

7.6 [Tovath]

Hermione Granger woke to one of the biggest headaches she had since that one loop with Naruto. She tried to check her in-loop memories, but the only thing that happened was that her headache got worse. Beside the bed she on was someone, an old man; saying something about mind control and that her memories would return in time. Before she really had the chance to grasp that she was in a new loop, one that she hadn't seen before, she had to run away from soldiers through some caves. She hated having headaches; They made her miss obvious things. That being said she really should have been paying enough attention to not fall down any holes.

When she woke up, there was a young man man in a bandana leaning over her. "Ya ok? Feeling a bit loopy?"

"I'm fully Awake, but for some reason I don't have any loop memories." It was weird but she had less of a headache now, despite the fact that she had likely had hit her head at some point during her tumble.

"That would be 'cause Terra has amnesia. You're replacing her."

"Terra, that name seems familiar," had Cecil mentioned it during that loop they had together. "What is the name of this loop?"

"Warring Triad Loop."

"I've heard of this loop, so...did you Ping yet?" Hermione didn't think she heard one but having a headache did funny things to her on occasion

"Opps, I forgot." He said shaking his head "Haven't been looping long."

"Well than let's get that taken care of." She sent out a Ping, but there were no replies. "We must have a stealth anchor. I guess we should get introductions out of the way and head out to wherever. I'm Hermione Granger."

"Heard of ya." he said "I'm Locke, we usually head to Figaro." Hermione was surprised to get so little reaction, not that she minded.

-x-x-

Hermione wondered what the reason for Figaro castle being in the middle of the desert was, for it did not look like a big trade city, but there were more important things to worry about now. Figaro had a library, so she would finally get to read books she hadn't read a hundred times before. She started looking through the titles, but it was impossible to tell what they said. Some of the words seemed familiar, but had different endings than what she was used to. Other words were complete nonsense. She then realized a possible reason for this and went to look for Locke.

She found him stuffing his face in one of the guest rooms. "Could Terra read?" she asked.

He was polite enough to swallow his food before answering."She never did in baseline. She's learned since though."

"That explains why I can't read this," she held up the book from the library. "but not why I feel like I am trying to read German when I only know English." Great, I bet he doesn't even know what those languages are.

Locke was looking out the window. "Well you are going to have to wait a little while to figure that out. Kefka is coming, so we will be busy for a bit."

"Will it cause any problems if I get rid of him now?"

Locke raised an eyebrow "He'll probably cause fewer problems dead."

-o-

7.7 [Bardic_Knowledge]

Cloud didn't often Awaken before the Nibelheim mission, but if he did he knew it was an easy way to give himself a peaceful Loop by keeping Sephiroth's body from falling into the Lifestream if it came to a fight, or talking Sephiroth down from madness if he could. Zack was Awake, too, so that meant things would go even smoother than normal. The truck-ride to his hometown, though, that could get pretty boring. Even the dragon attack was just part of the routine at this point. So, to spice things up, Cloud had gotten some lessons on pick-pocketing from Yuffie and tried to see how close he could get to stealing Sephiroth's Materia. He had yet to actually succeed in stealing any Materia, but it was an amusing diversion.

That is, until he found himself with a mastered Restore Materia in his hand and Sephiroth not even glaring at him. A glance at Zack revealed that his friend had no idea what was going on either. Since Cloud was technically just an infantryman, finding out what was going on fell to Zack.

"Um, sir? General Sephiroth?" Zack started. Sephiroth gave no indication he had heard. "Sir? What's wrong?"

After a few moments of silence, Sephiroth spoke. "I thought it was a dream..." Cloud and Zack looked at each other in confusion. "I had a family, friends, and I believed that I had somehow fallen asleep for a moment and had a strange dream. That I was the son of heroes. That I was going to be a hero. I did my best, but people still feared me, even as I was saving lives. I cut down someone whose whole life revolved around me to save a city. I killed a president to save my fellow Powered humans from losing themselves forever. To save my parents." A bitter laugh left Sephiroth's lips. "I met her again, the girl whose whole life was about me. I went into her mind and saw that the dream I had had was similar to her life in so many ways. That the two of us were so alike. She was dying, we all knew it, but I fell in love with her. And when she died, I was devastated."

"Tell me, Zack. Cloud. Is this the dream? Or was that? Will I wake up to find my parents depowered, Victon victorious, and Jenny dead? Or will I never see them again?" Sephiroth looked up at Zack, then over to Cloud. "Does anything I ever do, truly matter?"

"Sephiroth..." whispered Cloud. He had hated the man for so long, killed him so many times, but the empty look in the general's eyes chilled Cloud Strife to the bone.

"Of course it matters!" said Zack. "Because you're alive. And as long as you remember her, she lives with you. And on top of that..." Zack scratched the back of his neck. "This might take a bit of explaining. Y'see, there's this thing called Yggdrasil. Apparently, way back before almost anyone can remember these days, it kept reality stable. The guys in charge could pop in from time to time and pal around with all us mortals. Sometimes if a mortal got strong enough they could go out and join the Admins. But then something... happened, nobody's sure what and the guys upstairs haven't said anything one way or the other, and reality got broken."

Cloud picked up the thread. "To try and keep things stable, they started putting the various smaller realities into time loops, with one person always remembering every Loop. We call them Anchors. Eventually, other people started to Awaken to the Loops as well, and they helped keep those worlds even more stable. At times, rare times, two Loops can fuse, and elements of each are present. But things are still broken. They can't come in without possibly ripping the world apart, and we can't Ascend without doing the same with certainty."

Sephiroth looked curious, which was a vast improvement over the emptiness of a few moments before. "So... I have 'Awoken?'"

"Yes," nodded Cloud. "And, really, it's up to you to decide how you want to live your life in the Loops. Most people in your position wind up becoming friends with their mortal enemies. Some keep fighting, or have fun with being evil, but without malice."

"And if I just want to rest?"

Zack smiled, and placed a hand on Sephiroth's shoulder. "Then you can rest. The two of us have been Looping long enough that we can probably keep Hojo and ShinRa off you. If you just want to take off after we get to Nibelheim, we'll tell the higher ups that you were KIA or something."

A small smile graced Sephiroth's face. "Thank you. I think... I know exactly where to go."

-o-

7.8 [Facepalmist]

"Squall," Quistis called as the SeeD candidate began to stride away from the Balamb Garden gate, "you're forgetting something...your GF."

Squall hadn't forgotten. He'd actually planned a no-magic baseline run to hone his gunblade skills this time; being the only one Awake gave him the opportunity for once. Nonetheless he turned back around to face his instructor...

...Who was cupping something in her hands. Something that looked like a tiny, white-glowing shrimp with way more antennae than what looked standard. Something that rang alarm bells in his head for some reason, though not for any reason to do with his Loop-memories.

"Wait a second." Squall pulled a PADD out of his Pocket and started searching, ignoring Quistis's puzzlement regarding the unfamiliar technology. Nearly a minute later found him staring down at the relevant entry, his eyes flickering warily between the PADD entry and the thing in Instructor Trepe's hands which was apparently a GF this Loop.

"..." Noticeably pale, he put away the PADD and drew his gunblade. There was only one thing to do.

-x-x-

One rage-quit and Two Loops later found him in Eden Hall via Eiken, this time with an Awake Quistis in tow.

"...turns out I can behead myself."

"What the hell?" Quistis asked.

Squall showed her the PADD, which portrayed two pictures. On the top was an example of the aforementioned glowing shrimp-thing. On the bottom was a book cover.

Quistis adjusted her glasses and squinted. "...The Host, by...Stephanie Meyer... Oh." She looked up at him. "Wuss."

Squall shrugged uncomfortably. "Whatever..." he mumbled, going back to his drink - which, this being Eden Hall, was one of the best he'd ever tasted. "At least they weren't Goa'uld this time."

"What?"

"Nothing."

-o-

7.9 [Tovath]

The oglop somehow was holding a sword with it's two forelegs. It would be comical if it wasn't for all the soldiers it had cut down.

"Guess we're having a Cid Switch this loop" said Zidane

"You mean he is from..." started Princess Garnet

"One of other Final Fantasy Loops, yeah. None of the Cids are Awake, but every once in awhile something like this happens. I think he is from-"

"Heaven's wish to destroy all minds... Holy Explosion!"

"Ramza's part of the Ivalice Loop."

-o-

7.10 [Facepalmist]

An anticipatory hush lay over Mushroom Rock and the beach far below, as the sea began to swell and a leviathan shape to rise from within. Atop the highest plateau for which the locale was named, between the nervous cannon crews and the command centre personnel, an Awake Yuna kept the temporarily defeated Sinspawn Gui visible from the corner of her eye as she gazed down at the scene below.

It was a scene she had never particularly enjoyed before, given that this was the site of a great many deaths that (until recently, in the Loops at least) she had been unable to do anything to prevent. As far as the aeon trapped within the colossal fiend was concerned, it was time for his little crybaby of a son to learn a lesson about Spira.

This time, she devoutly hoped, would prove to be a most entertaining exception.

Next to her, said crybaby (also Awake) had put away his sword for the moment and was munching on a tub of popcorn, completely ignoring the quizzical looks he was getting from Wakka, Lulu and Kimahri (none of them Awake). She snuck a handful from the tub, sharing a quick grin with the blitzballer.

"This is gonna be so awesome," Tidus muttered, quietly enough for the others not to hear him. Having them harping on about disrespect to those here to fight and die today would just ruin the moment.

Down below, the Crusaders had formed ranks along the cliff-face, as far from the water as possible. With the sudden and vastly appreciated addition to their battle plan, the soldiers were hopeful that they wouldn't have to fight today - but they had to be there, just in case something went wrong or there was a need for clean-up. The fact that they had a front row seat for what must surely be one of the coolest things they would ever see was just a bonus - something which was wholeheartedly agreed with by the Al Bhed manning the scavenged heavy energy weapon down the coast.

At the water's edge, at the epicenter of the waiting tableau, stood the figure of a certain Guardian, equipped with something decidedly unusual for him. The Looper stood staring stoically out to sea, regarding his old friend as Sin breached the surface.

With deft hands, Auron removed the armored piece on which had been mounted the quartet of mirrors angled for best line-of-sight over his shoulders. As it slid into his inventory, he looked up at the looming Sin...whose eyes (or at least several of them) swiveled to fix Auron in their sights.

From the gigantic fiend came a high-pitched warble, which to many of the onlookers sounded suspiciously like 'aw shit'. Auron shrugged, turned around and started walking away.

And behind him, Sin started exploding.

The Crusaders cheered wildly as great building-sized chunks of Spira's bane sloughed away. That cheering abated only momentarily as they realized that a number of said chunks were actually latticeworks of sinspawn, and only for long enough for the shed sinspawn to also start exploding.

Auron had barely walked ten paces from the water's edge - which, notably, was nine more paces in a row while walking forwards than he had made since Awakening in Luca - when Sin's whale-like bulk was torn asunder both from without (by the explosions) and from within. Shouldering its way out of the ruined leviathan, the mammoth, bestial form of Braska's Final Aeon furiously waved its massive sword at the uncaring samurai...

...before promptly exploding. Then lighting on fire. Then exploding again.

At sixteen paces, a three-metre-long form resembling a bloated tick tore itself out of the messily dying aeon and headed at top speed for the horizon, the millenium-old immortal summoner Yu Yevon exploding several more times and trailing a multicoloured line of fire as it sped away. At nineteen paces it exploded one time too many and expired with a massive conflagration that blanketed the sky in motes of light.

Yuna promptly took the chance and began dancing to send on the souls of those departed. Tidus promptly put away the popcorn (and the camera, a tiny little thing which had been unobtrusively hidden in the bottom), pulled out a sniper rifle from his Pocket and shot Maesters Seymour and Kinoc while everyone else was occupied. (His accumulated experiences made him plenty real enough to stick around until time reset, which might complicate things - but hey, why not see what happened next?) Meanwhile, Auron came to a halt after a few more paces and redonned the mirror assembly; even with the extremely low likelihood of re-manifesting before the end of the Loop, it was still better safe than sorry... especially considering the singular, horribly destructive quirk of this particular iteration.

As the legendary guardian and single coolest individual in the history of Spira let himself fade into the Farplane, no-one witnessed his quiet utterance, his last words until his next Loop began anew:

"Kamina must never hear of this."

-o-

7.11 [Wildrook]

Shirou then cringed.

"Now I know how Ranma felt as the lone male Mithra," he said to the redhead who was chuckling at his predicament.

Marche was surprised.

"A Male Viera? I've heard of male Mithra," he muttered.

"Marche, right?" he asked him. "One question...why the heck are the Viera after me women I know from my home universe?"

Marche and Ritz were surprised as they looked at the Viera horde.

"I didn't know they had different ear colors," Ritz said.

"They usually don't," Marche replied.

-(One loop later...)-

Shirou can be seen in Eden's Hall.

"We never speak of this again," he said to Marche and Ritz.

"Agreed," they both replied.

That's when Fran decided to walk in.

"Evening, Dr. Frank-N-Furter," she said.

There was a face-fault from Shirou, Marche, and Ritz. Fran gave out a chuckle.

-o-

7.12 Final Fantasy IX / Digimon Frontier [Opus J]

Part 2...

Dagger was quite confused at the way Steiner and Zidane seemed to get along. They had been quietly conversing with each other after the trek down the slopes and into Dali. The cute bundle of fluff, Tommy had talked to them at the beginning as well, but it was obvious that the trip had begun to wear the boy out, even though they hadn't spent more than a few days in the caverns behind them. (She was exhausted too, but refused to admit it.)

Still, she'd never have guessed that Steiner could be so gregarious, especially when it was with one of her kidnappers! Perhaps, though, it had something to do with Zidane's friend, the one trapped in the awful forest that had tried to kill her...

"The town ahead of us is Dali." Zidane said confidently ,looking directly at Tommy. "We'll stay here until the Airship shows up..." His eyes trailed towards her, "...and we'll catch a ride to Lindblum. The Clockwork City is huge - you'll love it." He grinned back towards Tommy, and the boy grinned back, though she could see that he wasn't as confident as he was trying to portray.

-x-x-

Zidane swore as he dashed out into the town, swearing rather vile oaths involving Chocobo, Flan, and the probable parentage of most of the town. The proprietor of the inn had paused to freak out, which had all but confirmed his fears, but Tommy had passed out before he could talk it over with him. Dagger had soon followed, and after a brief, quiet discussion, the pair had gone to sleep as well.

Tommy had been awake in the morning, but mindful of Zidane's warning had waited for him before they had gone to breakfast. He had managed to let him know that they needed to talk, and Tommy had made a quick trip to take care of his necessities... and hadn't returned. Thirty minutes later, and one use of his lock picking skills, and it became obvious that the morons of the town had taken their youngest member hostage, just like Baseline. Or not, as a few obvious signs of a scuffle were clearly visible.

Steiner had been quick to notice, but not quick enough to stop Dagger from noticing as well. Now the three of them, after grilling the incompetent Inn manager, were on their way into an improbable situation - Dagger was going to have her eyes opened in a rather less pleasant manner then Zidane preferred, having had a few other ways to help ease her into this, most of which would no longer work. Steiner, being Awake, would and could help, but it was going to be painful for him.

The script deviated again when they reached the room Tommy used to be in - and found four unconscious guards instead. While Dagger was startled by Alexandria's emblem on the cask, Zidane darted ahead, hoping to catch Tommy before -

A startled 'Kupo' from ahead wrecked that hope, and he walked into a scene he hated as the little Moogle in front of him fell back in shock at the sight of the mass production of the many, many large Moogle Golems, being created in a mass factory setting. While it wasn't as disturbing as it had been the first time, he knew how it was likely affecting the boy in front of him.

The Moogle noticed him a moment later as he briskly walked over. "Zidane..." Tommy called out obviously confused, and feeling hurt.

Zidane dropped to his knees beside him and pulled him into a hug. For a moment, he froze, then moments later he went all but limp holding on to him. A few moments passed before Zidane spoke up. "You have a soul." Tommy pulled back, but Zidane held on to his shoulders. He looked him in the eyes as he continued, "Vivi, the Looper you're replacing, has spent most of a dozen Loops contemplating souls, and most importantly, his own. But he was certain, and so should you be, that you have a real soul, and a right to exists that nobody should ever doubt." He ignored the sight of the boy's eyes getting watery. "Loops or no loops, I hope you know that."

Tommy nodded, not quite willing to trust his voice at that moment. They pulled apart a moment later, as Dagger stormed in with Steiner hot on her heals.

-x-x-

The fight against the second Sonata was just nasty. Fighting a berserker with a pair of nasty cannons? Difficult, but not impossible. Fighting a teleporting sniper, who seemed prescient to damage? The only reason this Loop hadn't ended early was because Zidane had given them equipment from other Loops that gave them major stat boosts. Some of the 'optional' bosses he'd fought had been easier than this! Tommy wasn't able to do much damage, though he had managed to freeze him long enough for Steiner to get in one good blow. Unfortunately, the second Sonata had taken it personally, and the boy was now target number one - meaning Dagger was spending a lot of her magic healing him. Steiner wouldn't pull out anything too exotic while Dagger might see or be hurt by it, a guard dog instinct that was ingrained into him, so this time it was up to -

The golem froze as Tommy finally managed to shoot him again, once again freezing him in place. Leg-Shot his mind reminded him, an ability that was awesome. A moment later Zidane was on it, tearing through it with stunning ferocity. For a moment, it's scream seemed to pass through him - then Steiner finished it by taking off it's head.

Dagger all but dropped to the ground now that the battle was over. Tommy looked like he wanted to join her, but wasn't sure if it was safe. It was Steiner that finally spoke. "All for staying one more night at the inn?"

There were no objections.

-x-x-

Zidane pulled Tommy to the side on the way to the inn and handed him a new pair of guns. "We got these for you." Indicting Steiner as well as he handed over the peacemaker revolvers. "You should have a few new abilities with these... since we learn from equipment this loop, as usual." He grinned at the momentarily startled lad. "Trust me, this isn't the strangest thing you'll ever see." He grinned widely. As Steiner distracted Dagger, he spoke again. "Let me give you a quick recap of a normal loop, so we don't do something like this again." Tommy firmly nodded, sending his Pom-Pom flickering back and forth. It sounded like a solid plan.

-x-x-

The final Sonata appeared as they were riding upon the Airship. It was the first time Steiner had seen a Moogle that actually radiated hostility as much as a madman like Kefka. It was extremely creepy - and it made it all the worse when the drones, just at the edge of sentience, stepped in front of Tommy, shielding him from a hail of gunfire pouring from a pair of tommy guns.

It wasn't surprising to him that the little Moogle went berserk. What surprised him was that Tommy was using his guns to fire shots of a strange metal that were ripping his opponent apart. Then again, size wasn't always the most important thing in a fight.

As the Sonata was blasted off the ship, Steiner made a mental note not to piss the kid off if he went into Trance. That wasn't something he wanted pointed in his direction.

Dagger took them to the Lindblum Gate, but it appeared that the third was just as tough as any Waltz, as it chased after them in the Airship. While it had lost one of its guns, it was still capable of damage - and only Tommy was still on deck. The Moogle dived for cover as a hail of bullets slammed into the deck, then popped up for one long moment, sighted his gun, and fired a single bullet.

The explosion was instantaneous, and glorious. Steiner watched dispassionately as the monster crashed in a flaming wreck.

The Clockwork City lay ahead.

-x-x-

The hunt had been great fun - and Zidane had been overjoyed to find Freya there. The Dragoon had steamrolled him at first - until Tommy had killed the giant monster with a lucky shot. The Dragoon had laughed, but had turned all business when word came of the invasion.

Zidane had waited for Dagger to pull the sleeping weed trick, then pulled Tommy aside. "If you want, we could leave you here where it's safe." The offer was sincere, since he wasn't sure if the kid would be up to this. "It's not going to be safe-"

"I'm going with you." Tommy said with conviction. "Just because it might be dangerous is no reason for me to stop. Besides, I've got to try this baby out." Tommy caressed the cannon he was now holding, having run into a new weapon in the Synthesis Shop. While it was only one gun, it honestly ranked as a mini cannon in Zidane's book, half as large as the Moogle. "And... I've learned from my adventures in my loop that I've got to face my problems. I can't run away from them." He was much more serious as he spoke.

"Alright then." Zidane said. " Off to the Grotto."

-o-

7.13 [Dragonraptyr]

[SUB-BRANCH: FINAL FANTASY XIII]  
[BASELINE COMPILED]  
[SETTING ANCHOR]  
[ANCHOR SET]  
[SUB-BRANCH: ANCHOR: CLAIRE "LIGHTNING" FARRON]  
[SUB-BRANCH: INITIALIZATION COMPLETE]  
[ACTIVATE SUB-BRANCH?]  
[YES/NO]

[YES]  
[SUB-BRANCH: ACTIVATED]  
[LOOP ITERATION: START]

For a moment, nothing happened. Then, somewhere out beyond human cognizance, Odin pressed a button on an unassuming computer terminal.

Lightning took a breath. Blinked her eyes. And had to promptly reorganize everything that she knew about the world, when she looked out of the train window, and watched the world curve upwards.

Cocoon. As it had been a thousand years ago - before Ragnarok, before Chaos and Valhalla. Before the end of the world.

The world that had been created had melted away into nothingness, replaced by a dream of what was.

Hanging Edge came into view.

Lightning clenched her fist as the train slunk under the mountains towards the Hanging Edge. Few people had the power to do such a thing. Fewer still would dare. This world could only be the work of Bhunivelze, that cruel god who dared to play with humanity without understanding. An illusion created to mock and torment her.

She looked about the train. Most of the faces were foreign to her, the memories faded to oblivion after an eternity. But she still caught sight of NORA, and her fellow L'Cie. She gave a shallow smile.

If god thought that she would bow, would give in to his game and submit to being his pawn, he was wrong. Lightning had defied his will before. She could do so again.

Lightning gave a grim smile. "Get ready, Bhunivelze." She spoke to herself softly. "I told you before. Turn on me, and I will tear you down."

-o-

7.14 Final Fantasy Senshi Part 4 [Tovath]

Terra was finding school to be the hardest thing to get used to in this loop. Yesterday they had a test. Today she she had ended up in a "discussion" with the teacher about why she had failed the test. The truth would be too unbelievable. She had been able to come up with the excuse of having to help train the shrine's new assistant, which was true enough to pass, as the shrine did have a new assistant, Bartz. Hopefully Cecil would be able to give her some advice on dealing with school, she thought as she started doing some chores around the shrine. He should be here soon.

"Hello"

There was a blonde haired girl who Terra vaguely recognized from school. "Did you come to see the shrine?"

"Yes, I..." She trailed off as she saw Cecil coming up the shrine steps with an oddly dressed Umino over his shoulder. Cecil smiled awkwardly and asked for help getting rid of his friend's possession. Terra pulled out a paper seal and focused her magic though it as she had been practicing the last few days.

It worked. As Umino thanked them and apologized to Cecil for all the trouble, Terra noticed that Alma looked shocked and amazed.

"Could I learn to do that?" She asked quietly.

"Um,maybe, I'm still learning myself." replied Terra, then deciding that sounded rather indecisive she continued with "You are welcome to come back at any time."

"I might do that." she looked at her watch. "I have to go now, my brother will worry."

-x-x-

The walls were draped with purple cloth. From the placement of the curtains and pillars, the boss monster would have stood right over there. For it was obvious that this had been a lair of the Dark Kingdom. It was also obvious that someone had gotten there before them. The only clue to who this might be was a rose imbedded in the floor.

-o-

7.15 [tovath]

"I said I was sorry" said Celes. It was not often that she looked awkward and uncomfortable, normally one couldn't tell that she was feeling any emotion.

"That doesn't help" replied Cloud

This was much to interesting to leave alone, thought Balthier as he strolled over to their table. "What happened?"

"Just finished with an 8 bit Theater punishment Loop because, she-" Cloud gestured at Celes.

"I forgot what the Meteor spell did in the Lifestream Loop."

"That crashed the loop, I take it."

-o-

AN:

In case anyone is wondering here are the names I am using for the different Loops.

I Dissidia  
II Wildrose  
III Gulgan Prophey  
IV Mysida  
V Rift Divided World  
VI Warring Triad  
VII Lifestream  
VIII Soresses Garden  
IX Geia  
X Spira  
XII/Tactics Ivalice  
XIII ?  
XV Eos


	8. Chapter 8

Final Fantasy Infinite Loops

Chapter 8

Disclaimer: All of the Final Fantasy characters belong to Square Enix. The original idea for the infinite loops comes from Innortal and later was codified by Saphroneth. OathtoOblivion started the Final Fantasy Loops thread and was the first compiler. I think that's everything...Oh yes Spacebattles is who hosts the Infinite Loops threads.

-o-

8.1 [Gamerex27]

Zest could do nothing but stare at the horde of Manikins flew right at him.

"A curious Variant," he said to no one in particular (seeing as, once again, he was the only Warrior of Light around), "but one I have the means to deal with."

"Come," he yelled at the encroaching swarm of crystal bees, "and face the light!"

-o-

8.2 [Drakohahn]

Marche sighed as he found himself once again repeating his life in St. Ivalice. It's been well over a hundred times already. A hundred times, he helped his friends and brother deal with their issues. A hundred times, he defeated Le Grim.

First, he dealt with the bullies during the snowball fight. They always focused on pummeling his friend Mewt; and it seemed to get easier with each reset, despite not retaining the physical fitness he always acquired from joining Montblanc's Clan. His other friend, Ritz, usually got involved, but not always.

Then, after school, Mewt bought a strange book in an unknown language at a bookstore he liked; the Gran Grimoire. After bringing it to Marche's house to show to him, his brother Doned and Ritz, they left and their combined wish to leave the real world, and thus their problems, behind caused the reality altering book to whisk them away to the land of Ivalice.

It was getting rather tedious.

Once more, his friend brought over the book... Was it his imagination or were the images and script a bit different than normal? Marche filed it away in the back of his mind so his friends didn't start worrying about him.

The evening held no more excitement that day. The young man fell asleep, knowing that he'd be in Ivalice upon waking up.

Well, he was not wrong.

When consciousness returned to Marche Radiuju, he kept his eyes closed for a moment. The young man expected to be on that street in Cyril where he always bumped into a pair of Bangaa and met Montblanc. He expected to hear the murmur of the crowd and the clear sunny sky upon him.

That's not what he got. Instead, he felt the cold rain pouring down around him. He heard an older man arguing with one that sounded closer to his age.

Marche opened his eyes. He recognized the place as the Orbonne Monastery... and there was Ramza Beoulve in his spiky, dark violet armor and blond hair. Next to him, and the one he was arguing with, was Goffard "Gaff" Gafgarion. A man in dark brown armor, trained as a Dark Knight and not a man to be trusted.

The young man could hardly believe it. The Gran Grimoire had sent him to the Ivalice of Final Fantasy Tactics!

Off to one side of the pair of arguing mercenaries were the Lionsguard Knights, Alicia and Lavian. In the game he was familiar with, they could be mistaken for twins due to using the same generic sprite as all other female Knights, but here, they were obviously different. Alicia had brown hair while Lavian was a redhead, for one. Also, if Marche had to guess, Lavian was a couple inches taller than Alicia.

Then the monastery door opened to reveal the honey-blonde Holy Knight, Agrias Oaks. Dressed in blue with polished armor covering her chest and shoulders, she radiated power and determination. She began saying something to Ramza and Gafgarion, but he wasn't paying much attention to them at the moment. He was still occupied by one thing.

Where was Gafgarion's apprentice, Rad?

-x-x-

"Hey, Rad!" Ramza called out to the squire. It was a bit strange that he had hair similar to his own, but that was Variants for you. Of course, the fact that the squire startled at hearing his name -well, nickname in this Loop-, caused the Lucavi slayer to look at him curiously.

"Yes?" the younger male asked back, while trying to appear like he hadn't just jumped. The older blond quickly looked at Agrias and Gafgarion before marching closer for a more private talk.

"You sound nervous, like you're not where you expected to be," Ramza spoke low, but not whispering. "Rad" rubbed the back of his head before giving his reply.

"Would you believe me if I said I was brought here by an all powerful, magic book?"

The blonde in his dark violet armor merely hummed in thought. Then, he asked, "Does the concept of repeating time mean anything for you?"

"How did-?" 'Rad' started, but Ramza quickly held up a hand.

"Not here. We don't have the time or space to discuss it," he said before looking back at the other four people present. The Holy and Dark Knights still seemed occupied with some argument. It always surprised the current Ivalice Anchor just how long those two could go on if he didn't interrupt. Anyway, he focused back on the squire, "We'll talk about it tonight, once everyone else has gone to sleep."

Rad's replacement looked a bit confused, but then nodded his understanding.

-o-

8.3 [Zerorock41]

It was Locke's personal opinion that the Cave to the Sealed Gate was one of his least favorite dungeons in the world. Lava, Ninjas, that random Ultima Weapon, all elements that combined to make this place just plain unpleasant, especially for a Looper as young as him. Not helping matters was that this was one of the few places that, despite Terra's frequent "speed-running tactics," simply had to be done at one point or another.

Currently, the team of four (consisting of himself, Terra, Setzer, and Gau) was resting in one of the many side rooms in the cave. Gau was keeping himself entertained by bothering Setzer, but Terra...

"Are you ok?" Locke asked.

The half-esper was continuously cupping her hands, clearly trying to catch something that was bothering her. She responded, "I'm fine. Just trying to catch this bug that followed us in here."

Setzer looked over, desperate to distract himself from Gau, asking, "How is a mere bug surviving in this place?"

"No idea, but I do know tha-Gotcha!" Terra cheered as she finally caught the bug. "Oh wow. What kind of bug is this?"

Gau hopped over quickly, anxious to see his new friend's treasure. Looking at it, he said, "Gau think it big sucker. Toss. Toss."

"A mosquito, huh? Seems a bit big. I'll be right back guys." Before any of the three could stop her, Terra teleported out of the room. As the treasure hunter, wild child, and gambler looked at each other, Setzer pulled out a deck of cards.

"Anyone up for a game?"

-x-x-

Terra walked in, proudly brandishing the Ultima weapon she had decided to grab by herself, ready to finish her trek to the Espers when she stopped in shock.

Before her sat Locke and Setzer, both down to their most bare undergarments, holding cards and looking at her in horror (Setzer) and embarrassment (Locke). Meanwhile, Gau, who was wearing Setzer's oversized cloak and sitting on top of a pile of clothes, Gil, and equipment smiled at her.

"Gau is good Gambler!"

-o-

8.4 [Facepalmist]

Hub Loops tended to be treated by most Loopers as a treasured chance for a true vacation. While boredom could set in for the more excitable or action-oriented individuals, the fact remained that if one were to Loop into the right place in a Hub Loop (i.e., not into a warzone), the option became available for many varieties of entertainment. Sure, most of them were relatively tame, but that was vacations for you.

That wasn't to say you couldn't make your own entertainment...

'Theo' Bunansa strode from the shop, exerting every last smidgeon of his poise to avoid leaving a trail of drool behind him. There had been so many firearms, so very many truly excellent firearms. The major flaw inherent to this world's range of projectile weaponry was obvious: ammunition was finite, expended with each shot. As well, magick was sadly lacking in any of the weapons on offer, both in make and effect. And yet...

In terms of sheer non-magickal effectiveness, his home world's personal firearms may as well have been the most primitive muskets. There were handguns, 'pistols' and 'revolvers', which could fire bullets with more stopping power than one of his Fomalhaut rifle models. What they called 'rifles' here, were used by this world's marksmen to routinely hit moving targets from hundreds of yards away - and then there were 'sniper rifles', which in the hands of a true expert could perform the same function from half a mile away and with fantastic accuracy. Many of these guns could even fire hypersonic rounds, bullets with firing velocities so fast they broke the sound barrier - and, from the correct distance, actually reached the target before the sound did!

And that was before the many additional innovations were taken into account. Magazines for easy reloading, a must when ammunition was finite. Said ammunition came in a surprisingly wide range of varieties for all their magickal mundanity: scatter-shot, armor-piercing, incendiary, explosive, 'hollow-point'. Silencers for pistols, bayonets for rifles... And all this was just the firearms. Then there were the grenades. And their associated launchers. And the range of marvelously stable 'plastique' high-explosive compounds. And the incendiary mixtures.

...And that was merely the personal weaponry, available to any member of the public in good standing. Airship-equipped munitions compared more favourably, but here too did this multitude of humes develop a staggering range of equalisers in the absence of magick.

Cid would have been in paroxysms of joy to bear witness to it all, Balthier reflected. Certainly Balthier's palms itched to see what of this world's wondrous weaponry could be retro-engineered to his home world's standards of manufacture and available materials. And quite frankly, he had been mightily tempted to buy out the store - he could have fitted at least a large proportion of it within his Pocket.

But then, he had been rather bored. Perhaps a discreet bout of piracy might help with that state of affairs. Yes, it was time to plan a good bracing heist...

-x-x-

Meanwhile, 'Van' was having his own difficulties with drool and shenanigans back in his native Loop. Sure, said shenanigans would probably end up having painful consequences - but in the face of the magazines sitting on the newsagency's shelves, Vaan could only think that it would be so worth it.

It was time for the tale of Hugh Hefner and his awe-inspiring dream to spread to Ivalice...and especially to the viera. Vaan couldn't wait to see the expression on Fran's face, right before she tried turning him into a pincushion...

-x-x A Later Loop-x-x- [tovath] [Sir Kald]

SLAP! Alma Beoulve had put her whole body into that and it rocked Vaan back on his heals.

"What was that for?" he yelled.

"Your Playboy Bunny stunt."

"How did you even know about that?"

Alma held up a leather bound book. "It was in my history book."

"Wait," Vaan said, "let me get this straight. Tens of thousands of manuals for the construction and maintenance of airships and not one of them survives, the whole industry descends into myth and legend, but history verifies one admittedly highly successful porn business?"

Alma nodded, eyes filled with feminine outrage. "That's right. What do you have to say for yourself?"

"How about 'Gee, your historians have a skewed sense of priority'," he complained.

"That's it?" she demanded.

"Sure, unless you're interested in seeing if we can repeat history for Marche," Vaan added.

...

As he slowly recovered from the well-deserved beating, Vaan couldn't help but utter one phrase. "Totally worth it."

-o-

8.5 [Zerorock41]

The resident Anchor merely gaped at the approaching Meteor. Finally collecting herself, she turned to her current Familiar, who was replacing her Saito, and asked, "Really?"

Sephiroth stood proudly, "Of course."

"But why?"

Sephiroth shrugged, "Because most nobles on this world are selfish pricks."

"So that gives you the right to destroy the entire planet, including the innocents?" Louise asked monotonously.

"No, but it will make me feel better after what that Mott character tried to do to Siesta."

Louise facepalmed. Sephiroth continued speaking, "I would start casting that 'World Door' spell that will bring us back to my world right about now if I were you. Unless you'd rather die to Meteor impact?"

-o-

8.6 [tovath]

Terra was reading a bedtime story to the kids of Bredge-On-Brittlam Orphanage. Afterwards as she helped Matron Flirwell tuck the younger kids in one of them asked her "Do you really have ta go off to school again tomorrow?"

"Afraid so, kiddo, but don't worry I'll be back in a few months."

This loop had been peaceful so far, with Harry being very practiced at stopping all the problems in their first year, so Terra and Celes were able to concentrate on their studies of magic. It was hard work. She so hated tests. But after the year was over they had a great place to stay for the summer. The two of them even got to share a room.

Celes looked up when Terra entered and smiled "You would like to stay here wouldn't you?"

Terra smiled back. "A bit, but we are learning important stuff at Hogwarts."

"True, weird to learn magic without fighting." replied Celes, "Don't forget to wear your jewel ring and safety bit this year."

"I won't, though more likely we will just be able to sit back and watch whatever Harry has planned."

-o-

8.7 [Facepalmist]

Vincent awoke, and Awoke, to a windowless apartment. Danger senses failed to detect anything he had to deal with right then, so he silently climbed of bed as he waited for the Loop-memories to kick in...

Oh. There they were. He sighed mournfully even as he sent out the customary reply Ping to reply to the solitary one that he'd just registered.

Really, it wasn't as if he'd ever actually been called a vampire in his world's baseline. And yet for some benighted reason Yggdrasil just seemed to love putting him in these situations - whether as vampire, as ravenous beast, or as some local manifestation of Chaos. He had to admit that some worlds, such as his tour in the Branch known as 'Underworld', had been surprisingly appealing to his old Turk sensibilities. Arriving in Avernum had at least placed him deep within a dungeon full of undead monsters for him to clear out, which did wonders for his temper at the time. On the other hand, he was purely dreading the inevitable visit to the Twilight Branch... or Planet help him, the Anitaverse.

In the meantime Vincent went through his apartment, finding blood packets in the fridge. And a large bottle of mouthwash in the bathroom, where memories of the uniquely ensouled blood-drinker he was Replacing informed him that letting it warm in the shower under hot water helped make the taste more amenable.

...He snorted, bit the bag and drained it chilled - best not to linger on the unpleasant chore. As such, he also didn't bother with the hair gel that this vampire seemed to favor.

Fortunately his Pocket was accessible, so it was easy enough for Vincent to dress as he found most comfortable. Given the way parts of it stood out in an otherwise Hub-like world such as his Loop-memories were informing him, dressing such might have been inadvisable if not for his current circumstances - if nothing else, their tastes in clothing were more than a little similar otherwise. But then, he was a vampire (even if, to a man who already had three demons and (sometimes) a WEAPON grafted to his soul, a blood-demon could be regarded as not much more than a great annoyance). In a town crawling with dangerous monsters. He wasn't going to fit in with mundane society anyway, and he certainly wasn't going to pander to that society's mores with his clothing style only to leave himself dependent on his Replacement's...negligible skills and malnutrition-atrophied strength when he could help it.

Which reminded him: 'I wonder how well Fire materia works on vampires?' Vincent wondered with a smirk.

-x-x-

Later that night...

"Don't worry..." There was a rustling, and what sounded like liquid shifting in a skin of some sort. "I don't bite."

Interestingly to the approaching hunter, the voice he had heard was far deeper and rustier than would have otherwise been expected. That meant there'd been a Replacement. Piqued, Xander quickened his steps toward the ongoing confrontation.

"You know..."

Buffy jumped as a familiar voice called out from the street behind her. The strange vampire's arm moved so fast it blurred, tucking away the IV bag of blood and pulling out the...three-barrel revolver? from its holster and pointing it towards the voice before she could even think about reacting.

...only to lower it slightly as the boy she'd met earlier today stepped around the (Unawake) Slayer. "That outfit looks mighty familiar."

Much of the Replacement's figure was draped with a threadbare, tattered cloak of a shade of red that looked like it really shouldn't blend so well in the dark of the alley as it obviously did. The black leather pants looked mundane enough, as did the black silk shirt, though there were a daunting number of buckles and straps crisscrossing the ensemble. The red strip of cloth holding back the vampire's traditionally ridiculous hair was another clue, for all it worked well enough in obscuring that prominent forehead. Really though - it was the pointy armoured boots, the clawed forearm-length gauntlet and the gun that were the biggest clues.

...To him, anyway. The first video game wouldn't be released here for another couple years, after all - let alone the one which went into more detail about the Replacement's appearance.

The newcomer grinned sardonically, secure in the knowledge that his Ping had been recognized. "You wouldn't happen to know Cloud Strife, would you?"

"I would," the vampiric gunslinger quietly confirmed, letting the gun aim at the ground. "I would assume you are the one Looping as well, mister..."

"Heh, drop the 'mister'. It's Xander Harris - Anchor for the Hellmouth Loops." Xander turned to the increasingly confused Slayer. "Buffy, I'd like to introduce you to Angel, or 'He of the Angelic Face' - the only vampire," he paused to cram down what Buffy thought might have been a snicker, "in all the world with a soul. Also known as..."

Xander gestured to the vampire...the vampire with a soul? How did that work? What was even the difference?

"Vincent..." he rumbled, holstering the gun. "Vincent Valentine, of the Lifestream Loops."

...And Xander knew uncomfortably hot vampires by name. And they were talking about loops like they meant something. What the hell was going on?

-o-

8.8 [Chronopie]

Yggdrasil data recovery report.

Branch: Luxendarc.

File name: Bravely Second.

Type: Expansion.

Warning: Multiple instances of mutually exclusive temporal data.

Warning: Major temporal divergence. Some data will be inaccessible during individual iterations.

Caution: Significant modification to entities "Tiz Arrior, Anne."

Execute y/n?

"What do you think Grandpa?"

"It means Yggdrasil is fixing itself, and that can only be a good thing. Have you looked into the warnings yet, Thrud?"

"Mostly just minor changes, but I can't work out how the hel the major divergence even activates. It requires for a non-looper to use a read-only artifact that they shouldn't even have yet. And then it draws people from another iteration!"

"Well... Try running the new Expansion anyway, and we'll fix any bugs if and when they appear."

-o-

8.9 [Chronopie]

When the loop didn't end, following Tiz falling into a coma, Agnes was surprised. Becoming the Pope of the Crystal Orthodoxy was pretty much by default though. There were precisely two people able to commune with the Crystals. Her, and a young Vestaling, Sylvie, in the care of the Matron of Florem.

The return of Gathelatio was a shock, though, as Eternia descended back to the sea, and the mountain range isolating it sank into the depths. The spells shrouding Al-Khampis from sight and mind dispelled almost overnight, as did the one protecting Yunohana, and the shock there was that she'd forgotten them at all.

But with the return of Gathelatio came the revelation that the Orthodoxy was not reduced to a religion of two.

The next two years were filled with new experiences, learning how to run a religion amongst them. The heads of the families of the Crystalguard were a great help, even if they weren't as subtle as they thought with their ulterior motives. Braev Lee and Sage Yulyana offered their aid too, and they even managed to work out a peace treaty with the Duchy of Eternia.

-x-x-

Then some strange monster fell from the sky and cratered the land bridge between the lands of Harena and Florem, and the Sage went off to battle it alone.

Edea was again part of the Duchy's command structure, Ringabel had disappeared entirely, and Tiz was still in his coma, while she had her duties as Pope. If there had been anyone else that could have taken her place, she would've been right beside the immortal lech.

-x-x-

Then, at the signing of the peace treaty, Kaiser Oblivion struck. Him and the Cryst-Fairy Anne. And Agnes froze. In the end she managed to snap out a weak thunderga spell, but it didn't even scratch them.

The Kaiser called down first meteors, then called forth a Blinding Light. And that was the last thing she remembered.

-x-x-

The only things that she knew after that were a single room in the Kaiser's Sky Fortress and the intermittent contact with a shard of her pendant, carried by Yew Geneolgia, one of her bodyguards.

He met up with Edea, then a young lady from the moon of all places, then, finally, they managed to wake up Tiz!

Just the sight of his face looking back at her through the crystal was enough to bring a tear to her eye.

She couldn't be there in person, so Edea just hugged him enough for the both of them.

-o-

8.10 [Facepalmist]

"Those...were your zombies."

"Yep." The seven-strong party walked on past the dispersing pyreflies and deeper into Zanarkand.

"Those...were - well, definitely an improvement from back home," reflected the 'Legendary Guardian' Sir Carl, as he strode through the shell of what had once, according to Tidus, been a 'blitzball' stadium. His Loop Memories had him taking the lead, which worked well with the weapon he was currently using (on loan from Yuna, courtesy of her Pocket).

"I dunno..." Tidus replied. "Have you tried Phoenix Downs on your home-grown zombies yet?"

"I'll get back to you on that one," Carl said. It was a fair question, but he hadn't traded for any with other Loopers and he didn't think anyone else from his Branch had either. "It might be a different story if these guys' guns weren't so crappy, mind you..." This was certainly a turnaround, having the zombies carrying the guns while he lugged around a big flocking sword. But then, at least he had better options at his disposal - options that didn't even rely on his out-of-Loop arsenal or powers.

On that subject: the fully-unlocked Masamune sword twitched on his back, its First Strike capability kicking in as always to warn of another ambush. "Oh look, more zombies," Tidus noted as three 'fallen monks' burst out to confront the party. Carl flicked a Mega-Phoenix at them, and watched them all collapse and burst into pyreflies. Sure it was a little wasteful, but that didn't stop it being morbidly amusing... and more than a little ironic, what with Carl himself being another type of undead in this Loop. (And somehow still missing an eye. Figures.) Tidus continued as they kept walking, "Hey, you remember that wyrm we fought back on the approach to Bevelle?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"We run into Evrae again in the Via Purifico - me, Wakka and Rikku." Tidus glanced over at Carl, his blue eyes glittering with humour. "That one takes two Phoenix Downs."

Carl snorted, then unlimbered his sword again. This time it was a Defender Zero, so he just stood by as Yuna dashed past and bonked it on the leg with her staff with an adorable "Ha!" The way the hulking blue golem crumbled with the force of that little lovetap was, if anything, funnier than dealing with the 'zombies' here.

...He had to admit, this was a nice little vacation. Sure, there was that nagging pull at him to lash out in jealousy of the living, lose himself in despair and bloodlust and so on - but this was something he could reasonably fight against, and had fought against. For long enough, at least, for Spira's Anchor to Send Sin - and Carl along with it. (Oh, and apparently Tidus too, except he just didn't wanna go so he didn't.)

Even better: apparently the Farplane was a lot like some of his home's tales of heaven - and assuming Yuna and the others dealt with this 'Vegnagun' thing in timely fashion, he'd be kicking back in true vacation mode for the next two years. Now that...that was something to look forward to.

-o-

8.11 [Flametusk]

It was time. After a great amount of time, Eos was finally stable enough to loop.

[SUB-BRANCH: FINAL FANTASY XV]  
[BASELINE COMPILED]  
[SETTING ANCHOR]  
[ANCHOR SET]  
[SUB-BRANCH: ANCHOR: NOCTIS LUCIS CAELUM]  
[SUB-BRANCH: INITIALIZATION COMPLETE]  
[ACTIVATE SUB-BRANCH?]  
[YES/NO]

Odin could only hope that it wasn't too late.

[YES]  
[SUB-BRANCH ACTIVATED]  
[LOOP ITERATION: START]

-x-x-

"Finally, it's over." The last thing that Noctis Lucis Caelum remembered was him sacrificing himself to defeat Ardyn and end the Starscourge. Next thing he knew, he was in Leide, pushing the Regalia, with Stand By Me playing on the radio. The shock of him being alive, seemingly ten years in the past and, if he remembered correctly, heading to Hammerhead for the first time on his way to Altissia to marry... "Luna..." He said aloud, realizing that this may be his second chance to see her.

"Noct, I know you want to see Lady Lunafreya, but the Regalia isn't going to push herself," Ignis said from the front.

Noctis simply shook his head, thinking that it was all just a bad dream caused by the heat.

-x-x-

When the four got to Galdin Quay to get on the boat to Altissia, Noctis saw a sight that had haunted his nightmares whenever they slept in camp since Noctis had what he thought was a dream.

"I'm sorry, gentlemen, but the ferry's not running at the moment." The immortal Daemon in human form said.

"You- You- You killed Luna! How are you still alive?! I killed you! I fulfilled my duty as the chosen king! Is this what I get? Having to relive my life?! Is this what's going to happen?!" Noctis shouted at the one who would take Luna from him, before the world froze.

"Well, you seem to know a lot. But, whatever do you mean by me killing your dear Lunafreya? And now you try to kill me? How rude. If you must know how I didn't die whenever you killed me - when was that by the way? I don't recall ever dying by your hand, - I'm immortal. Yes, I was planning on killing the Oracle before I got my revenge on the line of Lucis, but you know too much, so I'm just going to need to kill you now. I wonder what the world will think? "Prince Noctis Killed by Chancellor of Niflheim Empire" has a nice ring to it, don't you think? Yes, I think it will do quite nicely," Ardyn monologued, as Daemonic forces held Noctis at bay, "Now, it was nice to talk, but I think I'll call this conversation to an end."

Ardyn then proceeded to stab Noctis in the stomach with his knife.

The next thing Noctis heard, were the opening chords to Stand By Me, with the feeling of his muscles being strained pushing the Regalia.

-o-

8.12 [Tovath]

Vaan looked around at the walls of Garamsythe Waterway, again. He always ended up back here no matter what. He used a Thundaga to get rid of the Dire Rats. He then turned around to see not Kyles, but a strange creature.

The strange creature waddled up to Van flapping it's wings, or maybe they were flippers. It had a beak of a bird and it had feathers, but that was about all it had in common with one. If it's feathers had been yellow he might have been tempted to call it a messed up chocobo, it's feathers were mostly black with white ones on its belly. It was standing on it's two feet more like a hume or a moogle though. It had also just pulled a sign that said "Looper?" out of nowhere

"What the hell is going on now?"

The strange creature looked at him, cocked its head and pulled out a piece of paper that said "Is time repeating for you?"

Vaan nodded too shocked to form a reply to this. This thing knew about...why did it have to be something that couldn't talk?

After a moment the strange creature handed him a bottle and a note that said "drink this."Vaan looked at the black and oily looking liquid in the bottle and shrugged. What's the worst it can do to me? I'll just come back from death He uncorked the bottle and drank it down.

The stuff was awful. Both horribly bitter and fiery. He was handed a cup and told to drink. He did and most of the bad taste coating his mouth went away. "What was that stuff?"

"Dragon's blood. It gives people the ability to talk to animals. Couldn't give you the welcome to the multiverse speech without it."

"What's that and what are you?" said Vaan, finally realizing that the creature was talking.

The creature flapped it's flipper wings. "Do you mean species wise or metaphorically?" It didn't wait for Vaan to answer, "Species wise I'm a penguin. Name's PenPen. I'm also a looper, which is what you are too."

-o-

8.13 Final Fantasy IX / Digimon Frontier [Opus J]

Part 3. More Moogle madness might make me Malleable...

The trip to Gizamaluke's Grotto wasn't immediate. There was a lot of danger ahead, traveling through the mist ahead, and even with preparations made, and time spent readying for the journey beforehand, they required a lot of time spent paying attention to landmarks. Time Freya hadn't wanted to waste at first - which meant now they were lost in a soupy cloud bank that seemed to stretch forever. While the dragoon was fretting, Zidane was calm and composed - He already knew that no matter how quickly they got there, it would be too late. Truthfully, the first time he had prepared and rushed over... only to discover, time after time, that it was impossible to stop the destruction of Burmecia. Personally, Zidane suspected that Kuja had spent some time softening up the defenders and structural integrity, because there was just no way that the well defended watch should've fallen. Getting lost did produce some benefits, however.

As the group walked into the little stand of trees, a burst of yellow feathers could be seen, and Tommy froze as the Chocobo stepped into the light. The look of wonder on his tired face was definitely grin worthy. The fact that a moment later the bird was eating out of his hand made Zidane wish deeply that he had a camera. Freya, worried as she was, was moved as well. With the mood at a temporary lull, he spoke. "Why don't we stop here for the night?" He desperately tried to bite back a howl of laughter as a miniaturized version of Vivi came out to talk about the Chocobo. "I'll scout out the way to the Grotto after a quick nap - and we'll be ready for battle with a good night's sleep." Freya seemed torn for a moment, then nodded her accent.

Zidane took a moment to get Tommy settled, letting him know he'd be back soon, then he rode off. He had a lot of things to set up, with only a little time to do it.

-x-x-

Freya shook her head as the four (and when and where had he met the odd Qu from the marsh anyways?) of them dismounted from the now sky blue Chocobo and moved into the Grotto. The thief looked tired, but pleased with himself, and she couldn't blame him. He had come back with a ton of new equipment from who knows where, and it was more than a little freaky. Still...

The thought was cut off with brutal sharpness as they finally got a good look at the damage. Awful simply didn't cover it. Agonizing might have worked, because it appeared that the destruction was total. They began passing corpses riddled with the same kind of holes Tommy's guns made, and though she was shocked at the crushing hole in her heart, she also noticed his small hands clenching into tight balls around his weapon.

"What is this? Survivors? This cannot be!" The speaker was a bizarre looking jester, with face paint that was smeared and white, giving the red dressed man a bizarre, almost inhuman appearance.

"This cannot be! Survivors! They must be destroyed!" Though this jester wore blue, he still radiated the palpable sense of hostility and twisted corruption his apparent twin did.

"On this we agree, Thorn!" Spoke the red clown.

"To their deaths they must go, Zorn!" Thorn, apparently, replied.

Then, together as one they screamed. "Moogles!" The response took only a moment, as four large, furry, white golems strode out of a hole in the nearby wall, armed with guns. Freya paused for a moment, selecting a target - that abruptly was dispatched by the roaring of Tommy's cannon.

Zidane was a moment ahead of her as she reached the remaining three, but he took one of the left goloms while she hit the central one with her spear, burying it in the creatures head. She turned, ready to deal with the final one - just in time to see Quina's lower jaw dislocate itself, and the Qu consuming the creature whole. Even Zidane looked a little green after seeing that.

Zorn and Thorn were no different. Both now looked white under their face paint. "Defeated, our creations have been!" Zorn said in a strangled voice.

"Ruined, our plans are!" Thorn said with a little more composure.

The two looked at each other for on brief moment. "Run Away!" They cried as one, both shooting away further into the newly ruined halls of the Grotto. They were chased by a shot from Tommy's cannon, and the unhappy look on his face spoke of much pain if he ever got his hands on the two of them.

Freya felt much the same. "Get back here!" She cried, furious, and claimed through the hole after them. The other three followed - though Freya hoped Quina stayed far away from her.

-x-x-

Tommy shook himself out in the fading evening light, shaking off the water that seemed to have gotten everywhere on him. The others were also soaked, as the leviathan that had attacked them had left the whole group drenched from repeated water attacks - and also from the slime excreted from its once living body. It had been driven mad, and though it had been beautiful, it had to be put down.

As he finished shaking off his hat, Tommy sighed to himself. The warnings about the other Moogles, and eventual fate had not been pleasant, but had reassured him that Zidane did know what was really happening. The explanation had taken hours... including the shot the two had given him. Apparently Vivi had created it to stabilize any black mage, and used it to extend his life to the end of the baseline. The 'Pinocchio Serum' as he had called it was, though not perfect, was supposed to allow him the time that had been stolen by 'Kujo' the monster who seemed intent on watching this world burn. Tommy had decided he wanted to pound the jerk to pieces, especially if the serum didn't work, since Zidane wasn't sure if it would work on a 'moogle golem'. And if it didn't...

The boy shuddered at the thought of dying like that. It sounded... unpleasant.

Zidane walked over. "Ready to go?"

Tommy pulled his hat back on, threading the pom-pom through a slit. "Definitely." He gave him as much of a weary grin as he could, considering the deaths he had just seen.

Zidane pulled out another cannon as Freya moved on ahead to scout terrain. "Try this one." He said, handing it over.

"Sure." Tommy said with a smile, sliding the other into a bag - that disappeared a moment later. He let his mind feel out what the cannon would teach-

The Cannon flew through the air almost on instinct as he hissed in horror. Zidane was startled for a moment. "What's wrong?"

"I am Never going to use that... Thing." Tommy said with much heat.

"And why are we not using the better weapon?" Zidane said with a little annoyance, picking the gun up and dusting it off.

"It teaches something called 'Charm Shot' ". Tommy said with an underlying horror in his voice.

Zidane was curious. "Why is that a bad-"

"Zoe used it!" Tommy said fearfully, wrapping his arms around himself. "They said no, I said no, but she... she..." Tommy shivered, though he wasn't cold. "She was our friend, but she wasn't, and she was bad and hurt us... and she's sorry for it... and I want to be her friend again..." Tommy couldn't look at the Anchor as it spilled out of him, the fear of a friend who had been driven mad by time.

He looked up as Zidane pulled his hand on his shoulder. "I understand." He said quietly. Looking into his eyes, Tommy believed him. "And I think you have every right to be mad - but you're forgiving her. It's no wonder you replaced my best bud." Zidane said with a firm smile. "He's forgiven a lot of people who have wronged him as well."

They were quite for a moment, then Zidane put the cannon away and pulled out a pair of magnums. "These ought to be better."

"Definitely." Tommy said with a smile. As he got used to the new weight, and the pair joined up with the others on the way to Burmecia, Tommy also realized nothing needed to be said to his newest friend.

-x-x-

Zidane struggled to rise again. Fighting Beatrix was, even from years of fighting, something that was all but impossible - unless he wanted to kill her... and he didn't. Otherwise, she tended to wipe the floor with all of them, no matter how strong he was. Kuja had appeared, as usual, taken one scornful look at them, and flown off, quoting that blasted play again. Why his data kept pulling up 'Loveless' instead of 'I Want to be Your Canary' just bugged him.

Finally on his feet again, he stumbled over to the Moogle. "You o.k. Tommy?" The groan that answered him wasn't very pleasant, but it did show that he was alive. He moved to Freya next, getting her moving, before moving to Quina, though with a bit of trepidation. She had repeated the trick with her jaws a few times as she had eaten several other enemies, and it still creeped all of them out.

That was another thing he wished could be fixed up. Quinoa didn't seem to 'eat' creatures the same way during any Loop. To learn blue magic, one loop she licked monsters and consumed their souls. In another, they turned to dust motes and she sucked them up. This was one of the more extreme versions, almost like Kirby had been grafted into her, and pieces of Orichimaru had been sprinkled on top. Needless to say, it creeped everybody out.

S/he (once again, nobody knew what sex it was) actually got up fairly quickly, and the foursome began to quickly heal their wounds. Soon enough, they were off to Cleyra, the city nestled in the giant tree.

-x-x-

The Summon, Odin, had utterly annihilated the tree, almost down to the roots. Tommy could only stare in horror at the destruction wreaked by the single casting of a lance. Zidane, though, was horrified by How they had summoned him - a blood sacrifice of a golem. Queen Brahne had done it with her own elephant hands, and that seemed to shake him almost as much as watching all those lives snuffed out shook Tommy.

When they got to the teleportation relay, they paused. "Are... are you guys ready?" Zidane was just a little off balance, they could see. Once again, the prior warnings about what was ahead appeared in his mind. But there was only one response he could think of.

"We are ready."

-x-x-

The Castle of Alexandria was still a sight to behold, even after all of the many loops Steiner had been through. It's dungeon was less so. Unfortunately, unless Princess Garnett, or Dagger as she often preferred, was Awake, he tended to spend far too much time here. The cage they had chosen to put him in along with the thief, was insultingly easy to escape from, and a few minutes after waking up, the two were charging up the stairs and into another hall, where they split up.

It was just a few minutes later that he ran into the others, who had teleported into the castle from Brahne's Airship, and the action really began. Many of Beatrix special forces stood in their path, though they were less dangerous than some of the other monsters they had run into in the past. To be perfectly honest, Tommy was actually more useful than Vivi at this point, as his attacks were able to blind and slow the many enemies in their path.

As they passed into the hidden alcove that led to Zorn and Thorn's secret laboratory, Steiner slowed and stopped, allowing his friends a chance to pull ahead and get the job done. Instead, he closed the secret passage, and turned to prepare himself. Drawing his sword, he took a deep breath to steady himself. In a few moments, his lover, his friend, even his wife once, was going to pass through the door. This was almost always the first moment he would have to not simply impress her, but to change her mind and allow her to see that the woman she was serving was not the same one she had sworn her oath to.

Beatrix arrived a moment later, and spent one fraction of a second being startled by Steiner standing at the ready, sword held high. "Stand Aside!" The order was barked out with a force that was palpable.

Steiner was unmoved. "No." He watched as her hands drew the sword, 'Save the Queen' ringing out as it was pulled from it's sheath. "I swore an oath to serve Princess Garnett, and Alexandria."

"And your Queen has ordered you to stand aside!" Beatrix shouted furiously. "She has ordered-"

"Her own daughter put to death?" Steiner interrupted, venom in his voice lashing her to a halt in surprise. "To throw the kingdom into chaos? To start a war that will cover this kingdom's hands with generations of blood as atrocity and counter-atrocity tear the world apart?" He graced her with a look of distaste. "I swore to serve Alexandria - to protect it! And I will - by protecting the only member of the Royal line who retains any semblance of sanity! If you wish to harm her," his sword seemed to tense in his hand, "You'll have to go through me."

For a minute, Beatrix stood, frozen on the razor edge of doubt. But he knew her, and knew that she wouldn't be stopped that easy. It took a few moments, but her own sword came up to the guard position. He could see the doubt in the way she held her sword, but her voice was frozen crystal. "Then you shall be moved." For a moment, the room stood in silence. Then, as one, they moved.

Beatrix was a raging fire upon the battlefield, who swept all in her path away. Steiner had faced her many, many times, and found himself wanting. The Loops he had been through, however, had changed him from a rough, barely worthy knight into something that could and would stand through the refiners flames. The force warned him of blows he needed to block. His sword was able to parry without damage as he reinforced the blade with his own power. He let her spend a few blows wasting her strength on his defense, then let his mind flow through styles he had learned long ago as Tam 'al Thor. _The Wind Rushes Through the Trees._ The Change in pace threw her off for a moment, but she compensated admirably. _The Quicksilver Threads the Reeds._ He repulsed a charge as she tried to force him back. _The Boar Rushes Down the Mountain._ An all out attack broke through her defense, and scored a thin cut upon her ribs.

"Enough!" Shock and surprise that she had been injured forced her to put it all on the line. "Climhazard!" She cried, even as her sword flashed with the force of her magic channeled through the blade.

Steiner had known it was coming. "Shock!" His own sword burned red as he threw the might of most of his Magic into his own weapon.

The clash of the blades froze for a moment with a keening noise that sawed through the ear into their bones. Then the backlash blew them apart, sending Beatrix into and splintering a nearby dresser, and Steiner flying on and across the large bed.

It took a moment, but Beatrix rose to her feet, a bit unsteady. "If only you were stronger." She intoned sadly, as she crossed the room to the bed. "Perhaps you might have-" She was interrupted when the bed was suddenly thrown at her, and her sword flashed as she cut the furniture in two. And then froze as she discovered Steiner's sword tip at her throat.

He was bleeding, but that wouldn't stop him. "I have sworn to protect Alexandria." He said in a clear voice. "Please. Renew your oaths. Help me." He slowly pulled the tip of the blade away - then let his sword droop. The next move would be hers to make.

-x-x-

Zidane shook his head as Tommy pointed his gun at the Princess again. The first time he had done it, the thief had freaked - until he realized the new ability he was using as they rode the Gargant towards Treno. Cure Shot, he called it, and it had begun to heal the unconscious Dagger, along with 'regen shot' . In fact, she should-

"Zidane? Tommy? What's... what's going on?" A brief recap of their adventure so far was interrupted by the arrival of the snakelike monster, followed by the ejection into the swamp. Ramah spoke next, and soon enough they were out of the swamp - and just in time to watch Brahne unleash her newest summoned creature upon poor unsuspecting Lindblum. Dagger and Tommy both were nauseated at the horror the elephant woman unleashed in her gluttonous quest for power.

Entering the wounded city always lit a fire of fury in Zidane's heart. It was bad enough that she destroyed nearly all of Freya's race because she found them 'hideous'. To attack an ally, who had lived in peace beside her, and had aided her people time and again... if she managed to survive the coming storm, he would kill her himself.

-x-x-

Dagger was all but numb. The journey through Fossil Roo had been tiring, but emotionally, she was wrecked. Her mother had tried to kill her! She had drained her like a potion or salve, and had ordered her killed. And when she had been rescued from Zorn and Thorn, and had the gall to survive, her mother had hired assassins to steal the last gift of her father's, and to finish the job.

Needless to say, as they exited the craggy outcrop of stone, she found that she was almost pathetically grateful that she might have a way to end this conflict.

Also, as the Queen devoured another monster, she wanted a salad. Because eating meat after watching that felt wrong.

-x-x-

"Huh." Zidane said with a bit of humor. "That's new." The mountain fortress, normally manned by the rowdy dwarves, was instead being lived in... by graceful, serene, woodland elves. Rather than fight the local custom, he kept one hand softly on Tommy's shoulder, indicating that he wanted a chance to talk to him "Mellon" His voice intoned, Tommy following his lead with a stutter and an unintended kupo.

As the elves let them pass, Tommy quietly spoke up. "What's wrong?" He asked.

"Nothing. I just wanted to talk to you a little bit." He led them off to one of the nearby tables, paying for a quick snack. "Have you had a chance to practice your Pocket?" He asked, indicating the subspace pocket that he had been teaching him to create.

Tommy nodded - And his previously used cannon suddenly appeared in his hands. "It's weird, but cool." He admitted.

"Keep practicing." He said with a grin. " It can help you out much more than you realize." Zidane pulled out a couple of odds and ends from his own pocket, and enjoyed the look on Tommy's face. "But also because we're coming up on what's probably a village of Moogles, and I wanted to make sure you'd be o.k.."

"I should be fine, Zidane." Tommy said easily. "I've had a few rough spots, but nothing worse than anything my own Loop has thrown at me." He let his eyes sweep out across the beautiful Conde Pette. "And it has definitely expanded my world view."

"True, true." Zidane laughed. "My own first fused loop was shocking enough for me too." He stood up. "Well, let's go. We can definitely buy some of the new gear for you."

-x-x-

The forest of illusion had nearly confounded them, but entering the village of Golems that had gained souls had been an experience that Zidane found worth repeating over and over. Tommy's reaction to the simple, friendly Moogles had been heartening, just as Vivi's had been so long ago. These people were amazing, more for what they had gained than anything they had created.

It was moments like this that sustained them. He had learned that lesson as he had looped time and again. Hope could sometimes feel far away, but seeing life triumphant once again made all the risks worth it.

-x-x-

The Marriage was great fun. Even if it wasn't real.

And much blackmail was collected as Tommy was married to Dagger. Besides, he hadn't known a Moogle could be so red.

-x-x-

Meeting Eiko went like usual. Though it was sad she wasn't awake, she remained a member of the strange family they had become. Letting her lead them to her hometown, ruins populated only by black mages, had been slightly surreal. Madain Sari, the ruined city of Summoners, was upon them.

One meal later, and they spent the night in the ruins. Cleaning up had taken too long, as usual, but she had promised to take them to the Ifia Tree in the morning, and to remove the barrier. She would be a lot of help, though...

"Zidane?" Tommy's voice echoed through the ruins, though he was obviously nearby.

"What's up, kiddo?" Zidane asked, letting himself turn to look at the boy. However, he felt himself grow worried at the look on Tommy's face. "Something wrong?"

"Not really... it's just..." He trailed off for a moment, showing his age rather well. "I'm feeling a bit small tonight."

"Small? Doesn't sound like the kid who uses cannons to shatter his enemies that I know." Zidane paused, letting Tommy catch his thoughts.

The Moogle grabbed his hat, tugging it off before playing with it in his hands. "...it's just that tonight, I'm looking out at the stars, and thinking about all of my adventures in other worlds... And realizing that I've spent maybe a month with my mother over the space of a year. Or that Takuya is who I find myself thinking of when I think about my brother." He turned away, hiding eyes that were becoming suspiciously moist. "Or even that I can't remember what my father looks like anymore, despite the fact I could probably draw Lucemon with my eyes closed. I just... feel small."

Zidane understood far better than what was bugging Tommy, though it wasn't something he would've admitted to. After all, their had been times he felt the same. He did know, however, how to help.

He pulled Tommy into a firm hug. "You're not alone, Tommy. Always remember that."

When Dagger woke him with her giggling the next morning, even if his arm was asleep, he decided it was worth it. Besides, friends didn't let friends get Sakura Syndrome.

-o-

8.14 Final Fantasy Senshi Part 5 [Tovath]

Bartz was sweeping the steps of the Hikawa shrine. He was glad that after his unusual arrival, he was able to find a place to live so quick; They didn't like people sleeping in the parks around here for some reason. Terra's grandfather – and she told him it was very weird to have one – had offered him the job of assistant as soon as he showed up. So he helped with the temple upkeep and learned the rituals, some of which were actually magic. Both Terra and him found that little fact very interesting.

It looked like there were a couple of people coming up the steps. The first one was a young woman, ah it was Alma Beoulve. She had been coming here ever since she had seen Terra deal with the mind control, or was it possession, of Umino. She was also in Terra's class at school. "Here again, Huh?"

This earned him a smile from Alma "Hopefully we can get through the review for our upcoming test quickly, so we can get to more important things."

"So what ofuda are-"

If you don't mind," interrupted the man who Bartz had seen coming up the stairs, "I'm Jed and I want to become an assistant here."

Jed, isn't that the name Cecil said one of the bad guys uses? Bartz glanced over at Alma. He couldn't get into a fight with a normal person around; too much chance of her getting hurt. "I'm afraid that that position has already been filled, by me in fact."

Alma spoke up. "Even if the was an open position, I doubt the head priest would want someone as discourteous as you.

Bartz tensed. He should be able to get between Alma and Jadeite before Jadeite could get off an attack.

"Very well." Jedite turned on his heel and left.

-o-

8.15 [Flametusk]

Every. Single. Time.

It didn't matter what Noctis did, time still reset. The one time he went back to before he left Insomnia, he tried to warn his father about Ardyn and the Empire. Regis had believed him, and precautions were taken, but Insomnia still fell.

It wasn't all bad, though. Noctis had gotten better at fighting Ardyn, and seeing through his tricks. It was amusing to see the look on his face when Noctis pushed him off the train, instead of Prompto.

Sometimes, though, the repeats didn't perfectly repeat the previous. Such as the time where Ardyn was the King of Lucis, or the time where Luna met up with them in Lestallum.

The only thing that always stayed the same was the fact that time reset about ten years after he met Bahamut, or when he died.

The last time, Noctis learned how to actually mountain climb, so he could reach those buildings that have the same style as Costlemark Tower, or Steyliff Grove, without needing the flying version that the Regalia sometimes was. This time, Noctis would get through that maze, even if it took until the reset! What would it matter if one time, he just ignored the problems of the world? Worst comes to worst, he could always just try to fight Ardyn without the ring.

'Pitioss Ruins, prepare to be completely explored!'

-o-


	9. Chapter 9

Final Fantasy Infinite Loops

Chapter 9

Disclaimer: All of the Final Fantasy characters belong to Square Enix. The original idea for the infinite loops comes from Innortal and later was codified by Saphroneth. OathtoOblivion started the Final Fantasy Loops thread and was the first compiler. I think that's everything...Oh yes Spacebattles is who hosts the Infinite Loops threads.

-o-

8.1 [tovath]

"Edgar, what are you doing?" asked Terra, looking at the contraption the Warring Triad's newest Looper was banging on.

"Phoenix Down launcher. It should be able to fire fifty in under two minutes."

"Did you just have a zombie Loop?" She got a nod in return as Edgar went back to concentrating on his launcher, "You know if you just got your magic power up a little bit you could do some sustained casting?"

"No thanks, I've seen how you look after a bout of that."

-o-

8.2 [facepalmist]

The first Bite Bug buzzed in on the attack, Squall standing stock-still as its wings' droning intensified. At the last moment, the SEED candidate (for now) glided to the side, Lion Heart lashing out to slice the monster in half.

He smirked, and that smirk widened as the second and third Bite Bugs fell as the first had. The last giant insect hovered in place, understandably hesitant...

"Flare."

...Not that it did any good. Squall set about collecting the spoils, and checked the time while he was at it.

He would have to leave in a few minutes if he wanted to make it back to Garden in time for the Field Exam deployment. Squall shrugged, returned Lion Heart to his Pocket and re-equipped with his native gunblade for this loop - or rather, its 'Punishment'-upgraded version. (Such was the highest-level mod he could get away with for the moment, as all the items tendered to the Junk Shop in Balamb Town were available through Quezacotl's Card Mod ability and a few games of Triple Triad. It wasn't that he had no adamantite stocks, it was just a question of explaining where he got it.) That done, he turned back toward Garden and started jogging, keeping a sharp eye out for more monsters - and thus continuing his self-appointed training regimen.

It had been a pretty long time ago now, that loop where Awakening as a G-soldier had left him with the ability to draw and cast magic without a GF, and his own burst of inspiration had led him to discover how to cast magic by instead forming it from his own energies. Since then he had visited other worlds, encountered other Loopers and finally got an explanation as to why time was repeating. Learned the Pocket, learned about abilities out there that could be found and cultivated and utilized back home. And over that time, his drive to find ways to function in the field without the GF had not only persisted but strengthened with each sojourn from his home Branch.

It was amazing in retrospect, just how much of a pervasive presence the Guardian Forces were to SEED's combat personnel. Merely training to provide headspace for a GF bestowed access to a massive dimensional repository, an 'inventory' where up to a hundred of each item could be stored and stacked - and for the price of a prepped command slot, some items could be brought forth one-at-a-time from seemingly nowhere in the heat of combat. The GF themselves also automatically bestowed a grab-bag of similar, seemingly indispensable powers: diverse junctions to allot stored spells to massively increase various personal attributes, refinement of stored magics and items, the ability to contact shops from afar and even alter the prices for buying and selling items. And that wasn't taking into account the even more diverse grab-bag of blessings and skills which they could bestow, or be altered to bestow: more direct attribute increases, auto-abilities that had continual effects in or out of combat, an 'S.E.P.' field that caused monsters to skirt around the GF's host, another field that caused proportional damage to those who succeeded in attacking the host.

The hosts of Guardian Forces, with experience and training, could be ridiculously powerful. Six teenagers, with experience and training and the GFs' aid, could destroy the most powerful monsters, strike down the ultimate Sorceress. Really, it was no wonder that NORG had leaped all over the SEED idea when Cid presented it to him - it wasn't as thought HE would have to suffer the inevitable hemorrhaging of memories as a side-effect.

In all honesty, Squall didn't mind the memory loss much anymore. Whatever the GF did to make him lose his memories, it seemed to have no effect whatsoever on his memories as a Looper. Having Loop-memories filled with holes was something he, like Cloud Strife of the Lifestream Loops, had long ago adjusted to; it wasn't like it was anything new to him, after all.

No, the problem he had increasingly seen - and had it rubbed in his face, in his last visit into a Branch not his own - was the fact that GFs were such an easy shortcut that they grew to be relied on for things that people were just as capable of doing themselves, if only they committed themselves to the effort. That the Guardian Forces were not just a pervasive presence, but an all-encompassing crutch.

Squall dashed over to the road and slowed as the gates to Balamb Garden became visible in the near distance. He'd made good time. Now probably safe from attack on the road, he withdrew a notepad and pen from his Pocket, flipped to one of his lists, and added a tick to a certain entry on it.

'Evade & Counter': successfully learned. Without a GF or a Spiran weapon to achieve the feat, no less. All it took was an effort of focus in combat to slip into the mindset of...well, evading and countering. It would take a great deal more practice to truly internalise the results, but for all intents and purposes it was sufficiently mastered to function as a working technique.

Annoying as it had been to fill Kimahri Ronso's role as a Guardian in that last loop spent elsewhere, it had and would continue to pay off in spades. Spiran 'blue magic' was interesting if occasionally painful to experience, and otherwise quite similar to Quistis Trepe's native version - but the magic system there was a wonder to contrast. There were spells, skills and special techniques known there that were thought all but impossible without GF here, and yet they had worked in ways so very similar. And it was a good thing they were so easy, so familiar - because his default set of skills here had been almost completely absent to him in that loop...except the ones that he'd learned to perform without the GF.

Squall glanced down the list, slate-blue gaze roving over the entries.

'Defend': Merely adopting the defensive wait-stances which were so elementary in Spiran combat had imparted a partial effect similar to the Defend Command. Fortunately he'd been lucky enough to pay attention to Tidus and his wait-stance.

'Cover': The Spiran special technique 'Guard' was essentially identical, except that Cover was automatic while Guard was a matter of mental focus for a short time. That one was more difficult to practice without uncomfortable questions being asked, but Squall looked forward to incorporating parts of the 'Sentinel' variant into his work in emulating Defend.

'Absorb': Here, it was a GF Command unique to Pandemona and Doomtrain. In Spira, it was a mid-level black magic spell, counterpart to the magic-targeting 'Osmose' spell. And Kimahri's special 'Lancet' technique had the bonus of also absorbing magical energies of the sort Squall used to power his non-drawn spells. The to-be SEED was planning to see if he could retroengineer a native version, maybe a draw-cast that also leached off some of the target's health.

'Doom': Like Absorb, it was a unique GF command. Unlike Absorb, it was actually a blue magic attack in Spira. It would be comparatively easy to learn to cast that himself, if only as another data-point. 'Kamikaze', like its Spiran equivalent 'Self-Destruct', fit under the same comparison - but that, at least, was something he was in no hurry to test.

'Counter': That one, named 'Counterattack', had been an ability imparted to certain customized weapons in Spira, one of three that Squall had been aware of; 'Evade & Counter' had been the healthier option for learning, seeing as it revolved around not getting hit.

His eyes fell on the other two he had been attempting to train out here.

'Alert': The less effective Spiran version was counter-intuitively known as 'Initiative', and increased the likelihood of ambushing the enemy through means he was...not quite certain about. It would be nice to learn that one, but he wasn't holding his breath.

'Initiative': That one was called 'First Strike' in Spira, and involved being alert and ready to make the first move at all times. That one, he was making steady progress in; much like the Counter technique, it was all about being in the right state of mind: the state of mind that both the GF ability Initiative and the weapon attribute First Strike artificially imposed, could be imbued directly with enough training and effort.

All these abilities, he theorized and hoped, had one thing in common: they could be mastered without the GF. No longer might not having the right Guardian Force or the right items to apply to one's ability-set bar Squall from being able to resort to a specific ability at need. Some of these abilities, like Counter and Initiative, promised to be viable even in Null Loops...and just as importantly, those loops where the GF were unavailable. Like when visiting just about any other Branch under the sun.

Squall's impression of that (Unawake version of) Tidus had been jarringly reminiscent of both Zell and Rinoa. Certainly the halting, supremely awkward romance between Tidus and Yuna had reminded him of himself and Rinoa - each of them stumbling through the cobwebs of their own pasts, reaching out yet held back by their preconceptions and walks of life, ignoring with all their might their Doom on the future's horizon. And as the gates of Balamb Garden drew closer with his footsteps, Squall vowed once more: no longer would his over-specialisation hamstring him and leave him yet again helpless, manipulated by the strings of fate...or 'baseline', as some would have it.

And just in case, he would also have as many words with Ward as necessary; Squall could only imagine that spear techniques differed somewhat between Ronso and humans...

-o-

8.3

[tovath and VS21]

The Mage Storms were over and Queen Selenay, who was Looping fortunately, had said that the next few years should be peaceful. This meant that Ramza and Vaan could relax over a drink and talk about their home loop.

Vaan thought that Ramza choice of milk to drink was a bit silly, but hey, if one can fight as well as Ramza did then they could drink any silly nonalcoholic drink they wanted. Vaan on the other hand was having beer "You think the magic we learned here can be used to control the Mist back home?" he asked after they were both sitting amazingly comfortable chairs.

"I don't know. There is no Mist in my time." said Ramza. He shook his head. "There are also no moogles or Viela. I have to wonder if what almost happened here did happen back home."

"What!" Vaan sat straight up. The Mage Storms had almost set off a Class One apocalypse just as bad, if not worse, than the one Kefka liked to set off in Terra's loop.

Ramza looked Vaan in the eye. "Something bad happened between our time periods. I have not been able to assertion what because the church has covered parts of it up."

"Well, what you do know?" Vaan almost knocked over his drink, not that that mattered much anymore.

Ramza pulled a leather bound book out of his subspace pocket. "This is the Germonik Scriptures. It might be able to tell more. Unfortunately, I can't read the old script, but you might be able to.

"I'll give it a try." Vaan started to read through the book. It was all about spies, plots and experiments done on Mist and Espers. "Whoa, this is heavy stuff! So what happened in the end with the experiments?"

"What experiments? According to the church that text is heretical and does not exist because it treats St Ajora as a hume not a son of god."

The discussion went on for hours as they figured out a plan for changing history.

-x-x-

As soon as Vaan woke up in the Garamsythe Waterway killing rats, he searched his Loop memories for any sign of this being a Variant Loop.

"Hmmm…two years after the death of the king, Reks is dead, Basch in prison and no meetings with anyone out of the ordinary….I think this is it!" Vaan thought and went off to start implementing the plan that he and Ramza had created the last Loop they had together. While they had planned it out several Loops ago, Vaan was unable to get their plans into motion due to the fact of him being involved in a string of Fused Loops prior to this baseline run…

The plan was quite simple, because of the long time gap between Ramza's time period and Vaan's as well as the Cataclysm pretty much taking out many of the distinctive features of Vaan's Ivalice; Vaan needed to leave a big enough impact that Ramza could notice even in his time. It would have been easier if he could take on this Ajora guy directly, but despite Vaan's powers and abilities he only had the Hume lifespan and that wasn't enough to directly influence the events that caused the Cataclysm.

But he had a plan to take of that. First, follow the events of baseline until the fall of Lemures. Then gather in Kytes, Filo, Penelo for Phase 2 of the plan, forming a Sky Pirates Guild that would make a name for themselves in power and notoriety.

Convincing Kytes and Filo was easy. The promise of getting more treasure was enough to draw them in. Getting Penelo in on this was a little more difficult and involved the promise of splitting any money they get with those that needed it.

Vaan agreed to that promise and they got started recruiting more people for the guild, in Balfonheim port they went and managed to bring in young sky pirates who were just starting out, from Rabanastre Vaan brought in many of the older kids who were in Vaan's group of kids when they were younger and they managed to bring in the adventurers, the orphans, and the ones who had an eye and ear for rumors involving treasure.

While the Guild was bringing in money through the treasures they were finding Vaan was still implementing another part of the plan they came up with. It was possible that the Cataclysm was started when Ajora seized the Espers and used them in an experiment of some sort. Vaan knew just where to find the Espers, thanks to the strategy guide Cecil had given him. Finding an excuse that he could go get them was another problem.

However, excuses to go after them turned out to be aplenty. A rumor of treasure in the Barheim Passage led to the Guild taking down Zalera, A search for rare nethicite in the Great Crystal led to taking down Ultima, A commission from a monk at Mt Bur-Omisace to take down Zeromus? No problem! Exodus shooting down sky pirates with meteors? Easiest excuse to take down yet another Esper…

One by one, Vaan needed to get the Espers so that Ajora would not get his hands on them and start the experiment that created the Cataclysm. The problems started when they went to deal with some bandits in the Zertinan Caverns. It was the perfect time for Vaan to not-so- incidentally pick up Adrammelech. The fights went well, but after the fight with Adrommelech, one of the Occuria appeared. "We will not let the reins of history remain in the hands of Man."

-x-x-

Ramza was having an odd loop. Everything was the same except the Lucavi were all different. Cardinal Delacroix had been Nabriales, the Majestic instead of Cuchulainn, the Unpure. Nabriales had been even worse to fight then Cuchulainn. Next Wiegraf merged with Loghrie, not Belias. Ramza had a fairly good idea of why this might be. This was not the kind of effect that Vaan was probably going for, but it did prove that it was possible to make changes.

-o-

8.4 [tovath]

Rydia was down in the Feymarch again. Cecil's plans for this Loop included a fish, a spoon and a rubber chicken, but she had begged off because she had wanted to come down here. She liked how she could talk with so many different Espers. Despite the number of loops she had been through she was still learning new things from them.

Shiva came down the walkway looking both determined and disturbed.. The moment her eyes lighted on Rydia she headed right towards her. Rydia had no idea why for she had not interacted with The Empress of Ice this loop yet.

"Some of the things I have heard about you make me think that you might know the answer to my question." Shiva said as soon as she got close.

"Why...What is the question?" This could be one of two things. The human world -It would not be the first time that an Esper asked something about that. Or...

"I seem to have memories of other times and places as well as the future."

"Can you change into a motorcycle?" asked Rydia

"Oh yes," said Shiva with a relieved smile, "I have been between a man's legs plenty of times because of that. So you do know what is going on?""

Rydia giggled, Snow would be embarrassed to hear Shiva say that. "Yes You see there is this tree...

-o-

8.5 [Flametusk]

Yuna was going through her pocket when she saw that the chocobo farm she set up was empty.

'Well, it has been about ten million years.' She thought.

"Now where did you..." The summoner was interrupted by a rumbling behind her.

Looking towards the source, she could only stare with her mouth open as the mansion-sized four-legged rainbow-hued chocobos were running in the distance.

'Note to self: NEVER leave any farms going for more than a million years without maintenance.'

-o-

8.6 [Tovath]

This was different. Locke had gotten used to ending up back at Narshe when a new loop started, but this time he was in a classroom; A large classroom that had a podium at the front of the room. At the podium was a teacher who was talking about 'Team assignments.' His in-loop memories, at least he thought that is what they were, were telling him he should be excited to be part of a ninja team...Wait ninjas, this did sound interesting.

"Team 7 is Naruto Uzumaki, Locke Cole and Andrew Pike with Kakashi Hatake as the jōnin instructor."

Locke knew that he had heard the name Naruto before, oh yeah, Terra mentioned it while telling him about the Loops. Let's see, he was one of the first loopers. Should be able to learn lots of stuff to help get rid of Kefka next time this Loop.

Once everyone else was gone Naruto turned to look at Locke and the other guy, Andrew something, who was on their team "Are both of you Awake?"

"Yep and feeling Loopy." said Locke.

"I am in need of an Anchor." replied Andrew.

"Great, now if I could get the names of your home loops and what kinds of things you can do we can get started. Whatever everyone else thinks, I will be the one teaching you."

"I believe my loop is called Elemental Masters." said Andrew, "I am both an Earth Master and a Doctor of Medicine."

So he knows knows lots of different versions of the quake spell. That sounds dangerous, but at least he can fix us back up after. "Good thing I know the float spell then. I'm from the Warring Triad Loop.. Can fight pretty good with blades. Can steal a man's clothes off his back. As far as magic goes I'm not as good as the others in my loop, only some healing and up ta level 3 for each element."

Andrew looked incredulously. "How can you do magic from more than one element?"

"Why'd ya decide ta go for such a destructive branch?"

Naruto chuckled "Ok first thing you newbies have to learn is that magic is different in different Loops."

-o-

8.7 [Facepalmist]

Meteor: the fabled, most destructive magic of the Lifestream Branch. A spell which did exactly what it said on the box - namely, the summoning of a magic-impregnated meteor which would impact with a force sufficient to inflict an extinction-level event upon the Planet.

However, it was the nature of the Loops that even such apocalyptic circumstances could be averted, given enough time(s) and planning. And again, it was the nature of the Loops that said courses of salvation would become increasingly ridiculous...

-x-x-

{...Familiar of Zero}

"DISINTEGRATE!"

The tiny, smug pink-haired magician (currently Replacing Aeris) grinned at the gaping AVALANCHE party. High above them, the Meteor was...well, disintegrated.

Meanwhile at the Northern Crater, Sephiroth blinked as the summoned planet-killer was erased from space. "Hmph. I wonder why Louise didn't use that the last time we met..."

-x-x-

{...Naruto}

There was a blur of movement so fast that only Cloud and Vincent's eyes could catch it... and then Meteor was shattered into hundreds of pieces - most of which were flung away from the presumed point of impact with such violence that they escaped the malevolent energies that had been holding the conglomerate together.

"Uhh..." Barret tried to reboot his brain and ask the obvious question.

Tenten didn't bother to wait, tucking the expended weapon-scroll away as she stared with satisfaction into the night sky. "One well-used stress ball, delivered at sufficient velocity."

"Huh," Cloud mused. "Might have to try that one myself some time."

-x-x-

{...Calvin & Hobbes}

PEEEW! "Grr..." PEEEW! PEEEW-PEEEW-PEEEW!

"...You missed," snarked Hobbes XIII.

"Shut up," Calvin Strife snarked back. Turning back around and putting down the Meteor-Destroying Gun, Calvin dug out his trusty texta. A quick additional squiggle later, a little digging in the box, and the visiting Anchor fiddled about with his brand-new Aiming Stand For The Meteor-Destroying Gun. "I'll get it this time..."

PEEEW!

-x-x-

{...Diablo}

'Necromancer' examined the oncoming Meteor with interest as the local hoverbike drove him upwards to meet it. The Lifestream Loop's Anchor had assured the visiting prison of Chaos that while relatively durable, Meteor was not immune to physical damage; it was with this in mind that Xul had agreed to a test of sorts.

The hoverbike slowed to a halt, leaving him floating directly under Meteor's massive bulk. Within seconds, it would strike him. The Diablo Looper grinned.

"Let's see how the Iron Maiden curse holds up against this, shall we?"

-x-x-

{...One-Punch Man}

AVALANCHE watched on as Meteor's pulverised remnants shot back out into the depths of space from whence it came. Most of them found their jaws hanging low at the spectacular demise of the Black Materia's summon.

Most of them.

Cloud shook his head. "Yeah... I honestly don't know why I expected Saitama to do anything else."

Tifa shook herself. "Hm, that might be something for me to aim for."

Falling the long, long way to earth, Saitama sighed. So much for that being a challenge...

-x-x-

{...The Matrix}

Neo landed from his staggeringly high jump as Meteor's pieces were blasted away from the Planet. He straightened and looked over at AVALANCHE, most of whom were picking themselves up from the impact of his landing.

Most of them.

Tifa shook her head. "And that's a fail for originality. Saitama did it that way already. Not to mention Godzilla. And Vincent. And they both did it with more style. Sorry..."

Morpheus, who was replacing Barret, tutted at the hapless visiting Prophesied One. Neo scowled at them.

-x-x-

{...Godzilla}

A titanically powerful blast of fusion-breath drilled into Meteor. By the time the onlookers had blinked away the tears, the blazing meteorite was in three still-massive pieces and a great deal of relatively harmless chips that would mostly burn up in the Planet's atmosphere.

Tifa looked up at the kaiju, forcibly restraining herself from asking if that was it. As it turned out, it wasn't; a harness with a pair of full-sized rocket engines manifested into existence, donned and ready for lift-off. Tifa blanched, pulled the rest of AVALANCHE into her Pocket, and legged it as Godzilla went airborne.

It took about a minute for Godzilla to reach the tripartite Meteor. That was enough time for Tifa to get to safety, pull everyone back out of her Pocket, and sit back to see what happened next.

What happened next turned out to be Godzilla performing an awe-inspiring and surprisingly limber attack as he shot past, which involved the Weapon-sized lizard near-simultaneously spiking two of the largest meteorites with his two forepaws while swatting the third with his tail. Godzilla didn't bother to stop, instead rocketing away into the cosmos as Tifa thanked her lucky stars for having the video-camera set up on a nearby mountain-top beforehand.

It was days later that AVALANCHE discovered that those three meteorites had been shot with great force towards the Planet... Or more accurately, at Diamond and Ultimate WEAPONs and the Northern Crater. ...Oh, and the shield covering the Northern Crater was down, as became apparent when Ruby and Emerald WEAPONs turned up and started battling Sephiroth there. But in the meantime, Midgar and stopping Hojo from shooting at them with Sister Ray beckoned!

-x-x-

{...My Little Pony}

Discord looked up at the looming world-killer. "Well, we can't have that!"

There was a moment of weirdness, and then...

"It's still there," Cloud noted. Though it looked a lot more pinkish-mauve for some reason.

"No, that's an equivalent mass of pelagia noctiluca...in a big ball of water," he hastened to add.

"...What?"

"That's jellyfish for you mundane plebians."

"...What?"

-x-x-

{...Neon Genesis Evangelion}

AVALANCHE stared, certain that this was a joke but uncertain whether to laugh.

Gendo tapped his baseball bat against the sole of his shoe and took a stance. Then he deigned to glance over at Cloud, who was giving him a deadpan look.

He shrugged. "Hey, it worked on Sahaquiel..."

-o-

8.8 [Bardic_Knowledge ]

Squall blinked Awake to find himself in what appeared to be a somewhat ramshackle training ground. As he stood in the crowd of, presumably, cadets, he felt three pings go off near-simultaneously, and was only mildly surprised to find his return ping to be the only response. Later that night, he was found by three others.

"Hi, you must be the visiting Looper," said one, the blond kid. "I'm Armin, these are Eren and Mikasa." He indicated the boy and girl with him, respectively.

"Name's Squall. Looping member of SeeD."

"Seed?" asked Mikasa.

"Mercenary force trained to kill Sorceresses, dangerous embodiments of magic. Some are okay, but most tend to go mad with power."

"Oh, yeah, Eren," said Armin. "I did a headcount before we met up with Squall here. Annie's missing."

Eren blinked in surprise. "She is? Could this be a Variant Loop, then?"

"I don't know, guess we'll find out if she attacks later on."

Squall quirked an eyebrow. "Annie? I take it she's an enemy."

Mikasa nodded. "We don't really know what her motivations are yet, but Annie tends to sabotage a crucial mission a few years from now while attempting to capture Eren."

"And what makes you so special?"

"Wow, aren't you cold?" muttered Armin.

Meanwhile, Eren answered. "I'm what we call a 'Titan Shifter,' which means I can turn into a Titan."

Squall leaned back in his seat and browsed his in-Loop memories. "Funny. According to my memories, so can I."

This was received with a long look between the Anchors.

"Squall," started Armin, cautiously. "This may seem a bit odd, but, what's your family name?"

"Depends on who you ask, my dad or my mom's home village. I prefer to use Leonhart, though." Squall looked thoughtful for a moment. "Huh. Looks like that's my name here, too."

"I thought so. Looks like we won't have to worry about Annie at all this Loop, because you're replacing her. Her full name is Annie Leonhart."

-o-

8.9 [kaleidoscope89]

Noctis learned after a few time-resets that some things didn't stay the same as they originally did. While some events and people changed in circumstances, there were times items changed as well. Like the time every automobile, including the Regalia, was replaced by chocobo-drawn carriages. In hindsight, he should have expected the Royal Arms to change as well.

"What. Is. That." disbelief plainly audible in Noctis.

"The weapon of your ancestors." Cor stoically explained.

"It's a bat." Specifically, a bat with an intricate chocobo design. The Chocobat of the Wise.

"Each of your ancestors has a weapon which encapsulated their entire being, providing the perfect tool for battle. When you have embraced your duty as King, you will manifest your own."

Noctis didn't even want to know what this meant regarding the life of his ancestors. So, began (again) the Prince of Light's journey to collect the royal arms he would need (again).

Battle of Insomnia

It was entirely unfair Ardyn kept the standard weapons while Noctis had this mishmash of items. On the other hand it was very cathartic to wail on Ardyn with a chocobo bat, toy hammer, boxing gloves, his father's walking cane... and even a fork. Not a standard dining fork, but a huge one the size of greatsword. For the last strike, Noctis summoned his own personal weapon which he had a lot of pride in.

"I am Noctis! King of Fishing!"A crystalline fishing rod struck down Ardyn's physical form, which only left the banishment in the astral realm left before time would reset again. He would miss this majestic fishing rod most of all.

-o-

8.10[Flametusk]

Tidus found himself being sucked into Sin after the Blitzball game in Dream Zanarkand when he Awoke. Sending out a ping, he got two in return. A quick check of his loop memories showed that Auron and Jecht were switched for the loop, but otherwise everything was baseline.

Seeing the stylized 'A', Tidus swam down to Auron.

"Old man? This has certainly thrown me for a loop," He said when he reached the central platform.

"If you need an anchor, just look behind you, Tidus."

Tidus turned around just in time for Yuna to run into him.

"Yuna? What are you doing here?"

" I... well... we don't have much time to talk. You'll understand relatively soon. As far as I can tell, we're the only ones Awake so far, and other than a few minor differences, this loop is going baseline," Yuna said.

Auron continued, "I'm taking you to Baaj. Every edition of a story needs to start somewhere, after all."

-x-x-

Tidus was on the beach at Besaid, meeting the Aurochs for this loop. When he mentioned that he had been close to Sin, he noticed that for his survival, they weren't praising Yevon. Instead, they were praising... 'Yuna?'

-o-

8.11 Final Fantasy IX / Digimon Frontier [Opus J]

Part 5 (Or how I learned to Like the Monk)

The morning hadn't been nearly as quiet as the evening before it - but that was to be expected when a pair of assassins raided Madain Sari for Dagger's necklace, and ended up having one of them join the group. Amarant was a muscular beast, with scraggly red hair and skin that had something of a blueish tint to it. He also brooded more than Koji while he worried about his newly discovered twin... And that took some doing.

Still, the trip to the enormous tree was made slightly easier when the newest warrior joined them. And, hilariously, Zidane ambushed him to not only give him a new weapon (another cannon), but he also gave him a number of Phoenix Downs, and informed him just what they did to the zombies ahead. He actually found himself enjoying the job of returning the living dead to their homes.

The trip wasn't something that Tommy would have thought he'd ever had made on his own, and it vaguely reminded him of Sefriotmon, with the inside an enormous construct. The trip to the deepest roots was also psychedelic, riding a giant, rotating leaf. It was weird, even for a kid who had fought angels, knights, and dragons in his own world.

The fact that destroying the odd Zombie Tree would cause other problems didn't stop him. Kuja needed to be stopped.

Upon exiting, the group came across Queen Brahne once more - but this time, she wasn't focused on them. She had her sights set upon her weapon supplier - who now countered her summons of the rampaging Ifrit, the hellfire blaze, with one of his own.

Bahumut.

It was over in a moment.

Watching Dagger and her mother talk was extremely uncomfortable, when all was said and done. She had mass produced an army of golems, destroyed the lives of thousands, and tried to kill her own daughter... yet Dagger still loved her. In a way, it was a shadow of many of his own relationships, before he had changed - even those of him and his brother. It was not a thought that comforted him.

He wanted to be relieved at her passing... But instead he felt sorry - for Dagger, and the Queen.

-x-x-

The destruction of Alexandria was already complete before he knew what had happened. The usual defense had come to life, the group had charged in to battle Kuja... And the city was wrecked by Garland, who refused to be endangered by his own creation. Honestly, the parallels between Vivi and Kuja were a bit frightening, and Zidane wondered if Vivi could have chosen a path that mirrored Kuja's, if he had been driven down other paths.

Now there was a scary thought. Vivi as an emo.

Soon enough, they were on the airship, looking for trouble in the form of a rogue weapons dealer. They found him in the desert palace. Unfortunately, they had landed in his prison, so things went sideways again. Zidane hated that it was so hard to stop Kuja at this point - if only...

He shook his head. Sooner or later, he would figure out how to save him from his own madness.

-x-x-

Tommy did not appreciate being in a prison over boiling magma. He appreciated it even less when the floor started to open up, in a manner reminding him firmly of a comic book villains elaborate death trap. He firmly suppressed the desire to run around madly, screaming ' Kupo kupo kupo ' and put his back against the door. He was disarmed, so he would have to hope one of the others could save the day.

As he watched the floor vanish, he couldn't help but let his mind wander. If this was the end, was this how it was going to go? Afraid, as he so often was? For a moment, he stood watching his life flash before his eyes. "To help with this, Kupo." He said after that, and stepped forward - and the floor snapped shut. After a moment, the door unlocked, causing Tommy to blink. "Huh."

As he walked to the door, Tommy made a decision. He wasn't going to let anything hold him back anymore. Not fear, not fury, not his own weakness. He was going to be his own Moogle - err, man.

-x-x-

Zidane couldn't help but feel a bit smug as he once more dragged Amarant out of Ispen's Castle. He knew that they were nearing the trip to Memoria, towards the end of their journey, but he also knew that it had changed all of his friends for the better. Including his newest friend, Tommy. The boy was much more self assured, and had changed from the uncertain child to the confident gunner he was now. Nearly a year with them, and he was ready to face this, or any other world.

It was time to face Kuja - and watch him break into pieces. It was time to reach Terra.

-o-

8.12 [VS21 ]

"Wow, so that's what happened there?" Vaan asked Ramza who replied with, "Yep" before immediately drinking the chocolate milkshake he ordered. Right now both of them were in a booth in Retroville's Candybar, talking about what happened the last time Vaan tried to change history so that Ramza's Ivalice would be more like Vaan's Ivalice...

Given the Anchor for that Loop was off-planet with the other native Loopers for a while, Vaan and Ramza were quickly getting the details from each other over what happened and both were not liking what they heard from the other...

"So The Occuria are becoming more hostile to your group?" Ramza asked

Vaan replied, "Yeah, The Occuria lead us in Baseline to try to maintain their control over Ivalice but with all of our going off the baseline script, they're becoming more unpredictable and more prone to try to stop us in a Loop..."

"Well, you wound up making some changes in my Ivalice, if that makes you feel better." Ramza said which made Vaan down his milkshake and say, "Still doesn't seem as if we succeeded on that front, at this rate, the only way for you to experience my Ivalice would to be for you to Loop in there..."

"Well I'm sure we'll come up with a good plan sooner or later..." Ramza said and then both went back to deliberating their plans over milkshakes.

-o-

8.13 [Tovath]

One of the soldiers started cussing out someone named Bhunivelze. That soldier wasn't someone that Celes recognized which given that there were very few female soldiers in the Imperial Army and none of them had pink hair meant Looper.

"Sergeant, please come see me in my office."

Celes' office didn't have much more than a desk, stuffed full of papers, and a couple of chairs. The only thing that could be considered an ornament was a map of the world that General Leo had given her.

"Sit down, sergeant." said Celes "Are you feeling a bit Loopy?"

The woman looked confused at the question. "I don't know what you mean, sir." She hadn't fumbled at all with the sir which was a good thing as far as Celes was concerned.

Celes sighed internally. "Let's try this, has time been repeating for you?"

"How...what do you know about that?" The woman grabbed for her sword. Odd grip, she must be used to a different type of blade.

"The same thing is happening to me. What caused this is rather more complicated." She got down to explaining about the Loops, again. How many times was this now? "...Currently there are three, sometimes four Loopers in this world. Terra is the anchor, but since you are also likely an anchor she might not be awake. There is a way to find out how many people are in a loop called Pinging. We will get to how to do that later, but first I have two questions. What is your name?"

"Lightning, sir, but my records might say that it is Claire Farron."

Celes smiled. "Lightning it is then. The other question is more complicated. As you might have noticed, if you looked at your in loop memories we are kind of working for an evil empire and Kefka is going to destroy the world in less than a year. Would you like to help try and stop it?"

-o-

8.14

Final Fantasy Senshi [tovath]  
Part 6

This was Alma Beoulve's first loop out of Ivalice and she was loving it. Her brother, Ramza was being over-protective, but he did have a point so she let him get away with it for now. This Loop was so different from her home loop in every way imaginable. Society was much more open here. And the technology; One could do in minutes what would take all day back home.

Not to mention the myriad new forms of entertainment they had here, like this amusement park they were at. She had heard about Dreamland theme park on the TV what a great invention and decided to go. It had been easy enough to convince Ramza to come with. She just told him she was going and he offered to accompany her. If she hadn't already planned for his over-protectiveness, she would be most annoyed You get kidnapped and used to... She was not going to think about that right now.

Alma saw someone in the crowd she recognized "Terra, what are you doing here?"

Terra looked surprised to see her. "Just looking around, I guess."

"You guess, what do you mean by that?" Alma grabbed her arm, "Come look around with us." Terra shrugged off Alma's hand "I'm here with some others actually." She pointed some young men coming though the crowd. One of them was the assistant at Terra's shrine, who she thought was named Bartz; the second was the pale haired boy who had brought his possessed friend to the shrine and the last she didn't recognize at all.

"Are any of them your," What was the proper word? "boyfriend?"

Terra shook her head. "No, just friends. I don't have a boyfriend."

Alma had a sense of approaching dread. It was no where as strong as a Lacavi, but still... She turned to see the park's mascot, the Dream Princess. Then she noticed that not only brother but also Terra and the boys with her were looking in the same direction.

"That is not good." said Ramza

"No isn't, but the fact that you can sense it is interesting." the pale haired boy said with as much authority as their father, Barbaneth, had.

Ramza pulled a rose out and said, "I think we are both fully Awake and have a stake in the matter." The rose was not a normal rose, of course. The guy her brother was Replacing had the ability to pull evil destroying roses out of the ether. She knew that her bother was really hoping that he got to keep this ability after the loop was over.

The pale haired boy raised an eyebrow. "I see we will have to talk later. For now will you keep an eye on that thing while Squall and I go take care of the Candy House."

Her brother nodded, but after they left he turned to Terra, "What is the Candy House?"

"It's where a number of people will soon disappear due to the Dark Kingdom. We are going to stop that before it happens." She looked more serious than Alma had ever seen her before.

The 'Dream Princess' wandered around the park seemingly at random for awhile, before turning into a gap between two plain buildings. When they entered the alleyway it turned into a monster and attacked. If it had hoped to take them by surprise by doing that it was sorely mistaken. Her brother was used to such attacks and had his sword out before the monster was though transforming. Interestingly enough Bartz and Terra had drawn their swords just as fast, but Terra did not move to face the monster. Things were a bit tight in here, but that didn't seem –

CLANK

Terra blocked the sword held a knight in dark blue and black armor and a cape with a lining that seemed blue one moment and red the next.

"You have good senses." he said

"Any ambush has a back attack." Terra replied

I see" he started a complex series of attacks that went so fast that that Alma didn't see how Terra could keep up. Alma knew she wasn't much of a fighter, but she had one thing that would be useful here. "Aegis" That would bestow an array of protective boons on Terra _._ Now, did her brother need any help? No, he and Bartz had just slayed the monster.

"Well I best take my leave." said the knight. "Tell my brother I said hello." He jumped up and disappeared. What was that all about?

-o-

8.15 [Flametusk]

Ruby Awoke holding an interesting trident, standing on what appeared to an altar surrounded by water in what appeared to be a city that seemed to be based on the hub city of Venice. Seeing how there wasn't any pings, she checked her loop memories. "So, seems my name is Rubyrosa Nox Fleuret this loop, and I'm something called the 'Oracle' and need to awaken something called 'Leviathan' so that my childhood friend Noctis, who turns out to be the King of the country that the country I lived in is at war against, can get its power and be able to end something called the 'Starscourge'." She used her loop memories to awaken Leviathan, and simply followed what her in-loop self would do, trying to follow the baseline as close as she could, since she did want to save this world.

When a man who her memories informed her was Ardyn Izunia, imperial chancellor of Niflheim showed up, Ruby could tell that he was bad news. Part of it was the fact that he tried to stab her. She couldn't have that, so she pocketed the trident for her weapon museum, grabbed Crescent Rose from her pocket and cut the man in two, before checking how Noctis was doing with Leviathan.

-x-x-

Noctis had gone through this point many times before. Most of the time, he traveled back to the start of his journey, before Insomnia fell. This time, he traveled back to the point where he started fighting Leviathan, except... "Wait, Ruby? Who on Eos is that? She's not Luna! If Ardyn wasn't about to kill her, like he has pretty much every other time I've gone through this journey, I'd ask her what she did with Luna." As he was thrown to the ground after telling the Hydraean to give him her power, and looked at where Luna "No, Ruby." would be, so he was surprised to see that she managed to dodge Ardyn's attack, and somehow pulled a red scythe out of nowhere, and had bisected Ardyn, before teleporting to Noctis.

"Hey, you need a hand?" The fake Oracle asked,

"Don't, don't touch me. Tell me where Luna is! What did you do to her?"

Ruby had no idea who Luna was, so she guessed by Noctis' reaction that she was who Ruby was replacing this loop. She also guessed by his reaction that this was his first fused loop.

"Tell me. Has time been repeating for you?"

"What are you talking about? This nightmare that I keep reliving? Having to relive my father and Luna dying over and over? Why? What did I do to deserve this? Why am forced to endure this alone?"

"Why are you repeating time? Well, it has to do with the fact that you are literally the most important person in the universe. I will explain all, and would appreciate it if you didn't interrupt me. Actually, how about we go somewhere that I can more easily explain this?"

"Fine. Wait- wherection did everything go? Where are we?" Noctis asked as Ruby took him into her subspace pocket,

"This is my subspace pocket. Welcome to the Multiverse, which is currently broken. The Multiverse is a giant tree, which is also a computer, called Yggdrasil. Each universe is a branch of the tree, and the gods are programmers in charge of fixing the tree, by putting all the branches into time loops to fix them. I'm billions of years old, and will teach you about the loops."

-x-x-

"So, Ruby, you're saying that I'm this "anchor", and that if I die before the loop ends, the loop crashes? Well, I was certainly the wrong choice. At the end of what you call my baseline, I literally sacrifice myself to end the Starscourge. At least it explains why time reset again after I tried to kill Ardyn in my first loop, when he showed up at Galdin Quay."

"I can kind of remember doing the same thing way back in my first loop. Except, in my case I died only a few minutes after. You survived a lot longer in your first loop than I did. Well, At least Cinder, she's the one that killed me, is looping now. She actually woke up from a variant where she was mine and Yang's sister. The looping her isn't evil. It's possible that the same thing may happen to Ardyn. But you were saying how the person I'm replacing his loop dies in baseline?"

"...Can we change the subject? I... don't want to talk about it."

"You really care about her, don't you? Well, the more emotionally attached you are to the person, the more likely they are to start looping. It's so that the anchor doesn't go insane from loneliness. Unfortunately, it's emotionally attached, not only positive emotions. That means that Ardyn could loop as well. Actually, I would say that either Luna or Ardyn will probably be the first person to Awaken in this branch. Either way, you have to remember that many powers from other loops carry over, such as Aura from my home loop. You also have your pocket, which does get bigger over time, yours probably isn't big enough to fit much in it yet. So, once you've gone through a few fused loops, you'll be able to end the Starscourge without dying. Here since you would almost be in the crystal by now, I'll leave, don't touch anything, I'll get to where the crystal is, and then you can leave, and go into the crystal, and then I'll just go killing daemons while I wait. Oh! But first, you need this to enter the crystal, right?"

Ruby gave the ring of the Lucii to Noctis, and then apparated to the crystal, having taken the information from Noctis' mind, and took Noctis out of her pocket with a few last words.

"You should put the ring in your pocket for next loop. I think that this loop isn't going to be worth sticking to baseline, really, so once you get out of the crystal, maybe just wait for the loop to end. Especially since you don't have Leviathan or Shiva's power this loop. Sorry about that by the way."

With that, she went on to explore Eos and expand her weapon museum.

-x-x-

"So, time is repeating, huh? Maybe... Maybe I could fix things. It seems I'll be alone for a while, though. May as well get some practice pinging and pocketing. The Six know I'll need it," Noctis said as he prepared for many lonely loops before his friends started looping.

"Here's to the world tree. Please don't let Ardyn loop."

-o-


	10. Chapter 10

Final Fantasy Infinite Loops

Chapter 10

Disclaimer: All of the Final Fantasy characters belong to Square Enix. The original idea for the infinite loops comes from Innortal and later was codified by Saphroneth. OathtoOblivion started the Final Fantasy Loops thread and was the first compiler. I think that's everything...Oh yes Spacebattles is who hosts the Infinite Loops threads.

-o-

10.1 [Tovath]

She walked along the busy street with Zest. So many people going every which way. The only time she had seen this many being before was a manikin attack. She moved closer to Zest.

"Don't worry, milady. We'll be there soon." They turned down a side street that was less crowded. "There, Vaan always buys the same building when there are this many Loopers." The sign over the door of the building Zest pointed to said 7th Heaven. "Well, Tifa seems to be looping at least if they have that sign."

Cosmos felt unaccountably nervous about meeting her warriors again. Zest said that none of them were quite the same and they had many friends that she hadn't met, but they were still her warriors.

The room had a bar along the shorter wall. The rest of the room was filled with round tables that had a great variety of beings at them.

-o-

10.2 [Tovath]

Minwu blinked. The last thing he remembered was unsealing Ultima, or was it defeating the Emperor in the afterlife? Was this this another level of the afterlife or was he back in the past?

"Are you alright?" asked Târî. Târî was dead. Minwu had seen him die. Were they all dead here and being forced to relive their lives? Looking out over the war torn landscape he could believe that, but there was no point in saying it. "I'm fine. There is fighting ahead, we better see what help we can render."

They came to the clearing where 'before' they had found Firion and his two friends half dead from the wounds that the Imperial Knights inflicted on them. This was not true now though. This time Firion and another man, who he guessed was Maria's missing brother were still fighting and doing a pretty good job of it. Maybe this wasn't the afterlife, Firion had still been alive last he knew.

The man who Minwu guessed was Maria's brother killed the last knight and looked like he wanted to rush off to find more soldiers to kill. Firion grabbed his arm. "Don't Leon."

"Why shouldn't I they killed..."He started sobbing

Firion glanced in Minwu direction before putting an arm around Leon's shoulder. "Minwu could you see to Maria?" He said that with such force that Minwu started looking around for her. He soon spotted her body. Looking over it, He could see it was a mess. Her arm was broken and bloody, she had been stabbed in the gut and she wasn't breathing.

He cast Life. Her wounds started to close and she opened her eyes. She had the most beautiful violet eyes. It was then that Minwu knew for sure that he was in the world of the living. He focused his magic on a Cure spell next, for Life might be able to fix mortal wounds, if the soul hadn't departed, but it didn't do much for non-mortal wounds; More than one white mage had their patient die after using Life because of that.

Târî interrupted his thoughts when he said in a tone that conveyed 'we need get out of here' without having to say anything so impolite. "Sir, the other is unconscious but able to be moved."

Minwu nodded. "Let us return then."

They were most of the back to Altair before Minwu realized that Firion had called him by name. How could that be? If he had been moved backwards in time then Firion hadn't met him yet...unless... He went to do talk to Firion.

It took a little while before he was able to do that. Which was only to be expected, but the exact reason was a surprise. When he approached the four friends after Guy had been healed, the first thing that happened was that Maria kissed him. A beautiful woman kissed him. She said it was to thank him for saving her life. Then he had to deal with her brother making sure he knew what would happen if anyone made Maria cry.

After all that Minwu was finally able to talk to Firion alone. "I notice that you seemed to know my name."

"And you know mine." replied Firion, there was so much tension in his shoulders. "Is time repeating for you?"

That was was not a reply that Minwu had been expecting, although he should have been, "Yes."

Firion smiled and relaxed. "Man am I glad there is someone else now. So here is what's happening...

-o-

10.3 [FTKnight]

Cloud awoke mid-battle with Sephiroth, as the pair locked sword in power-stand off, it became clear to each the the other was awake. as loop memories kicked in they disengaged, and looked down, at the own well stacked status.

" Strife. " Sephiroth said, overcoming his gender switch first. " Let's agree not to mention this loop. "

" Yeah, good idea. "

-o-

10.4 [Tovath]

Terra woke and Awoke. The first thing she noticed was the lack of a bed underneath her. When she opened her eyes she saw a man in Imperial armor trying to start a fire. That woke her up the rest of the way quickly. What happened to Arvis? She called a fireball into existence. She might not be at her best right now for the usual reason, but she could fight if she had to.

The last thing she was expecting was for the man to ask if she was going to help light the fire. "Who are you?"

"Wedge Antilles, from the Star Wars Loops."

Terra gently set the fireball down on to the kindling. The use of magic had made her post Slave Crown headache even worse. As her headache eased something else occurred to her. "So if you replaced one of the imperial soldiers, what happened to the other one assigned to the mission?"

"I don't like people who are alright with the use of mind control." replied Wedge, "By the way, do you know anyone who can repair Magitek. I need some more practice. "

-o-

10.5 [tovath]

"So I like him, but I think he likes her instead..." gobbled the chocobo Vaan was talking to. Vaan wasn't sure how he had ended up agreeing to this, at least he was being well paid. Bartz and Cloud were giving him Death Penalty, Ultima Weapon, the Chicken Knife and some Triple Triad cards for acting as marriage broker, or would that be Love Doctor for a bunch of Chocobos.

It had all made so much sense when they had first explained it. They wanted to set up a breeding program between their chocobo flocks to prevent inbreeding. That made sense so far, but then they decided that the chocobos should have some say in the process. Vaan was the only one they knew who could speak to animals.

Right now he was wondering if he should curse PenPen for giving him dragons blood. He had spent the last four damn hours talking to chocobo about their love lifes.

-o-

10.6 [Tovath]

Celes was unsure if she should do this. It would be so easy to just stealth this loop. It was more peaceful loop than her own and one that had most interesting technology. Edgar would love it...and maybe Professor Cid would be able to do his research without hurting anyone.

Celes squared her shoulders. She had to do this. The Count and Countess were good, honorable people. Their honor and mercy had been proven during the Pretender's War. She opened the door.

"Are you feeling a bit loopy?" asked Cordelia Vorkosigan, taking a good long look at Celes

"I am in need of an anchor." said Celes.

"Well I am one, but I doubt that you knew that when you asked to see me."

"You and your husband appear to be honorable people, so I felt that I should warn you that I have broken oaths of loyalty before."

"Can you tell me about your home loop is like?"

That was not the question that Celes was expecting, but she tried to answer it the best she could, "A mess, the world gets destroyed halfway though the loop. We have only been able to prevent that from happening a few times..." Celes ended up telling the whole mess to her. How Gesthal had researched magic, how the first attempt at infusing a human ending up driving the man, Kefka, insane and Gesthal made him a general anyway, how the second set of experiments was done on children. There was only one success in those., or should that be survivor, Celes herself. She had been made a general at sixteen. The energy for the magic infusions had been torn out of espers. But that was not enough for Gesthal and Kefka, they wanted the power of the Warring Triad.

-x-x-

Cordelia was glad that she had decided to get that degree in psychology a few Loops ago. Most Loopers needed therapy, often for things that they couldn't talk to a normal therapist about. Any conversation that started with 'Well I'm looping though time' would likely end with being dragged away for some involuntary chemical therapy. As least Celes' problems were all ones that Cordelia knew how to help with. She was only one person though, so she had started to look for other loopers who were interested in being therapists and making sure they got some training.

-o-

10.7 [Facepalmist]

Cloud stood outside the temple as it began to collapse, shrinking in fits and starts into its true form. The crude robot he'd left at its center was nothing near as sublime as Cait Sith ('sublime' being merely a measure of its engineering advancement as opposed to its personality), but it was easily sufficient to perform its job - namely, to complete the puzzles which would revert the Temple of the Ancients into the Black Materia.

Soon the metamorphosis was complete. He squinted down at the ominous crystal, resting at the bottom of the depression the temple once occupied. Cloud concentrated, and...

Success. It was a bit of a mental strain, but he'd managed to Pocket it into safe containment from all that distance. The Black Materia was no longer a factor for this loop. The Planet had been saved from Meteor before it could even happen. Cloud smiled, producing and remounting one of his Pocket-stored gold chocobos and heading off for his next destination.

Meteor was far from the only threat, of course. 'Sephiroth' might have only killed President Shinra two days ago, but Jenova and her catspaw would still need to be wiped out properly (or at least thoroughly enough to belay any more of its shenanigans for the next few years). So Cloud would head to Junon next and run into 'Sephiroth' coming the other way, then head up to the Northern Continent and collect Sephiroth's original body - though not without a short trip to Costa del Sol to see if Hojo was there on vacation yet and kill him if he was. Then over to Rocket Town, where Cid could easily be offered the right incentive to fix up the old rocket enough to load Sephiroth and the Jenova-bits for a one-way launch in a generally sun-ward trajectory. Back to Midgar to smash up Deepground, kill Hojo if he hadn't already, and... Well, that would be enough to go on with in the short term. After several dozen mostly lone runs in a row (except twice with an Awake Tifa), he'd pretty much got the pattern down to a rough art at this point.

Once all that was out of the way and he'd ferried Nanaki, Tifa, Aerith and Barret to Cosmo Canyon from Kalm, he could more-or-less get back to Vacation Time (a.k.a, Learn How To Build A Rocket-Ship By Helping Cid Build His) and also back to his latest long-term project. Last time he'd run into Squall Leonhart in a Dissidia loop, the Garden Branch's Anchor had mentioned some interesting things about learning various common spells and abilities without using intermediaries like GFs, and Cloud was making steady progress in learning how to perform the same feats without materia. Really, it was just too useful an idea not to explore, and he could only wait to show the other Lifestream Loopers the next time he ran into them Awake.

In all honesty, he'd be just as happy to see someone else Awake. It had been a pretty long string of lonely loops at this point...

-x-x-

A continent away, in the depths of Nibelheim's mansion, there was a locked mausoleum. And in that room, from within its central coffin, there was a sigh.

"...Enough."

Said coffin's lid promptly flew off with enough force to lodge itself in the door.

The first time Vincent had found himself awakened by memories of a seemingly impossible future, he had written it off as a strange dream and went right back to his nightmares. The second time, when he'd found himself with those same memories and the additional recollections of several more years sleeping in his coffin, he was suspicious...but not enough to return to the world. Much the same with the third time, despite his mounting irritation.

This was the fourth time. And it was becoming increasingly clear to him that for all he could sleep here for the next century, his past and that odd dream was just going to keep waking him up every few years. As such, there were better things he could be doing. Such as investigating any truth to these strange memories of an adult Sephiroth, and AVALANCHE, and Deepground. Of Lucrecia, and Chaos. Of Hojo.

It was time... to find Hojo. And shoot him in the face, as many times as necessary. And maybe a few times more.

Before that, he was going to visit Lucrecia's grotto. That would be the simplest, if not the most satisfying way to verify any truth in these odd dreams. If she was there... if even just the cave was there, that would be enough to at least merit further investigation.

But first, the door. Vincent stood and strode over to the door, ripping the coffin-lid out of its grasp. Getting out would not be a particular problem; while the door was locked, he wasn't a Turk for nothing - and the hinges were on this side in any case. Although... he studied the door's panel, which now had a foot-long gash all the way through to the other side. There was that one trick that the dream insisted he was capable of. Was it worth a try...?

Well, he doubted that the cloak-form could fit through a gap barely two inches wide. So he tapped the pins out of the door-hinges - really, his own lassitude had been the most potent ally on Hojo's side in keeping Vincent contained - and then slipped into cloak-form. Through the open door...then down the passageway, up the spiral staircase, into and out of the decrepit mansion.

He reverted to form at the entrance to the grounds. That, he reflected, was one question answered.

Beyond the rusted gates, Nibelheim stood. Due east, over mountains and river, the grotto awaited. His cloak-form could probably make it, but...

Chaos emerged, though not without a great deal of effort. He could just fly there.

An ominous roar reverberated across the surroundings, from no throat human or monstrous.

Vincent shed Chaos' form and clutched his abdomen. On second thought, perhaps he should visit the town and eat something first. He hadn't broken his fast for four decades*, after all...

(* Four-ish decades subjective, anyway.)

-o-

10.8 [tovath]

Terra placed down her last card and two of Squall's cards changed to her color. The grid was full; there were more cards of her color than of Squall's.

"You're getting better."

Terra shook her head. "I only won because I had a rare card."

"A win is a win and you always have rare cards." Squall said leaning back in his chair. "So where did you get that Hrist card?"

"Valkyrie Profile. Hrist was going to kill a man right in front of his daughter. We fought. They kept talking about how beings of the divine race were different than humans, so I thought I would see if it was true."

"Surprised that you didn't trip up any other problems." Said Squall,

"I had a few backup plans."

"Of course," Squall cleared off the table. "Another game?"

Yes, please."

-o-

10.9 [tovath}

The tides were calm in the bay of Altissia, but Leviathan knew they would not be for much longer. There were two things bothering him. One was that there was someone calling to him. "Who dares break the slumber of the Tide?" he called out.

"It is I, Lunafraya, blood of the Oracle. Goddess of the Seas, I beseech you; Enter into this covenant that the King might reclaim the Stone."

Leviathan now knew where he was. He had wondered when he would show up here. Hopefully there would be no problems with delivering Cecil's letter and gift.

He burst up out of the water changing into human form as soon as he was far enough out to do so. His breasts bounced. That had been the other thing that had been bothering him, hadn't it? Maduin had not been kidding about not noticing physiological changes right away, but really. He pulled a cloak out of his Pocket to cover up a bit more. "I will be glad to help, but could you please use masculine pronouns to refer to me."

Despite what was no doubt a great amount of bafflement, Lunafreya said "Thank you sir." and bowed.

Noctis came running up. He looked around as he caught his breath. "What?"

Leviathan looked straight at him. "I'm looking for an Anchor."

Noctis mouth dropped open, but what he said was, "Welcome to the Loop. We are about to be attacked."

"Ah, yes, of course." Leviathan sent up a circular tidal wave and froze it in place, so to speak. From the outside it would look like a giant ball of water. It would stop all attacks.

"You're Leviathan."

"Yes and before you ask, this is not a fused loop, but I am not exactly from your loop. I will explain how that is possible, but first you need to explain what is going on to your fiance while I set up some chairs."

As he pulled three enchanted oak chairs and a matching table out of his Pocket, Leviathan kept an ear open to make sure that Noctis understood the basics of Looping. It never hurt to be sure. He then put everything he would need during this discussion on the table.

"Sit, sit." he said as Noctis finished up his explanation. "Now there are a number of Loops that are called collectively the Final Fantasy Loops that are all connected the easiest way to tell if you are in one is the presence of chocobos and moggles. The magic system is mostly the same in each world, including the ability to summon powerful beings to aid their summoner. These beings include Ifrit, Shiva, Titan,"

"The Astrals." said Luna

Levithan nodded. "We are called many things. There are others that you have not heard of as well. The thing is that we can start looping the same way that a human, or any other race, can. But since we exist in more than one Loop, we cycle through being Awake in every loop that we exist in." He took a sip of his drink as a blast of demonically tainted magic rebounded off the modified Exdeath deterrent woven into the tidal wave. "Now I have here a letter for you from Cecil Harvey, the Anchor of the Mysidia Loop." He held up a piece of parchment sealed with red wax bearing the royal arms of Baron "If you wish to write a reply I will see that he gets it. This binder contains a political overview and other notes for each of the other Final Fantasy Loops. You will be expected to write one for this loop.

"This," he said picking up the slim book with a picture of Noctis and his friends, weapons out, on the front cover, "is the Final Fantasy XV strategy guide. All of these have translation charms on them, so you should have no trouble reading them."

-o-

10.10 [Flametusk]

"Why is the chocobo eater a behemoth this loop?" Tidus asked.

"It's not that uncommon." Yuna reminded him.

"Alright, let me rephrase my question. Why is it stronger than a behemoth king this loop?" Tidus asked.

-o-

10.11 Final Fantasy IX / Digimon Frontier [Opus J]

Final Chunk.

Memoria was... Blue. It was also odd, twisted, filled with monsters, and teleporters. It wasn't for the faint of heart. Tommy found it to be a bit dull, honestly, compared to the Digital world. Even the monsters didn't really bug him that much, since none of them really felt like they were more dangerous than a Mega-Level Digimon. He watched as they forged a path through the lost world of Terra, and into the world's heart. "Anything I should be worried about?" He asked Steiner quietly.

"Not really. Just... be ready to run." Came the reply. Noticing the askance look the Moogle was giving him, he shook his head and explained. "Garland, creator and caretaker of Terra, is going to screw everything up. He tends to tell Kuja that he's dying-" he ignored the startled jerk form the boy, "-And Kuja is the epitomy of 'Not Taking It Well'. He absorbs most of the Power from this world, and tries to destroy everything, because if he isn't going to live through this, neither will anybody else." He finished.

"That's Sick." Tommy said in a horrified tone of voice. "What kind of Psyco-"

"Kuja - For all of his evil - isn't near as much to blame as Garland." Steiner's voice was hard as he thought about the root of his Loop's issues. "Garland created Kuja, and all of the other Genomes as his personal pawns and toys. And when Kuja became self aware, and began to make his own choices, he threw him aside like a cheap toy, never realizing that he was letting

loose a sociopath on this world. Or perhaps..." He paused for a moment and glared into the distance. "Perhaps he did know what would happen, and didn't see himself being caught in the crossfire." He looked over at the contemplative face of the boy with the orange hat.

Tommy's mind wandered over his own cast of miscreants, both his friends, and the enemies that often tried to kill them. He thought of the Insane Knights. He thought about Lucemon. "Why do all these people keep trying to become Gods? Can't they just leave well enough alone?"

Steiner grimaced. "Probably not. Megalomania seems to dominate Yggdrasil, doesn't it." He sighed, stretching in his armor. "No use now but to press on into the future, wherever it takes us."

Tommy nodded - then shifted his gun towards the right. It was time to throw down with another dragon.

-x-x-

The ensuing Chaos was a sight to behold, as the world's largest temper tantrum tore the dying world apart. It was both impressive, and sad. Even most Mega level Digimon would have had issues destroying a world by themselves. Sad - because it all was because a childish fit tore apart the whole mad mess, and made everything worse. The Mist now engulfed the world, making monsters stronger, and ruining lives. It didn't stop them from taking the Airship, however, and charging into the void above the world tree.

A final showdown awaited.

-x-x-

As guns went, it was a glorious example of power, speed, and silence. The gun, labeled 'ICE-G5000', was a Gauss Gun, which fired projectiles made of ice at ridiculous speeds, capable of punching holes in Battle Steel. It was going in his pocket before the Loop ended. Before then, however, it had a number of Behemoth, Iron Giants, and Crystal entities to smash through. Not that he was alone in removing the obstructions that littered the path. Zidane was cutting his enemies down, Dagger Summoning Titans that ripped through the field, Freya, Amarant and Steiner were pretending to be a meat grinder, and Quina... Tommy shuddered as he tried to forget s/he swallowing the Behemoth whole. that was a memory that wanted brain bleach.

Soon enough, they had reached the Crystal - and Kuja. As he opened his mouth to rant, Tommy began to prepare an attack. "Such foolishness, to challenge me. But it matters not. Soon enough, all will be united in the Abyss. Soon all will-" Kuja's monologue was cut off as a sliver of ice tried to bury itself in his stomach, and the momentary hesitation cost him as light and shadow both engulfed him, and rivers of energy tried to tear him apart.

He snarled and gestured, and orbs of violet energy flew at them. they were intercepted and returned, and the melee became general.

-x-x-

The attack - Ultima - had sent all of them to the ground. The next battle was... a bit Psycadelic. Fighting an entity of entropy near a crystal that sustained all life was weird no matter how many times Zidane went through it. Still, he had done this by himself a time or two, so it wasn't the absolutely terrifying experience of their first run through.

Tommy had been freaked out (Because no amount of warning could prepare for this moment,) but he had powered through. After they had been deposited outside the tree, Zidane grabbed the two of them and got in a few final words. "Well, this loop's almost finished." He said with a smile. "Rusty will help you out with the last month or so -" He ducked a swat for his head with practiced ease, "So try to enjoy yourself."

"And where are you off to?" Tommy replied.

"To save Kuja." That declaration got reactions out of most of them - Though the Moogle simply looked down for a moment, then nodded. "Leaving him isn't something I can do."

There was a moment of commotion, then Tommy spoke up. "Go save your brother." He walked off after that comment. It stymied the others as well, and after a moment of silence, the rest began to wish him good luck - and insist that he come home safe.

-x-x-

Bonus

Tommy woke up to the familiar scene of a Train station falling far into the distance, and a smile appeared on his face. It had been fun, but he really had missed Takuya, JP, and all of the others. Even Zoe... though he needed to sit down and have a discussion with her when she was Awake. He felt a Ping, and returned one to whomever else was there. He pulled out his phone and pulled up one of the many apps on it.

Time to plan a new Loop.

-x-x-

"So you ended up as a Moogle?" The sound of disbelieving laughter made Tommy blush, but he handed across the photo to the Loop's Anchor. "Awesome! Did you pick up any other tricks?"

"A few." The blush faded as he grinned. Pulling a Gun from his Pocket, he took aim at the approaching Ogermon, he shot it's leg - and the digimon froze, unable to move. The next shot encased it in ice. "One or two."

Bonus Two

"So my replacement..." Vivi's disbelieving voice echoed as he stared at the picture of the orange hat wearing Moogle.

"Yep. He was a gunner. kind of like you in some ways." Steiner replied with a smile. "So, you ready for this Loop?"

"What do we have planned?" Vivi asked, pulling out a notepad.

"Well, Zidane wanted to try out a Play revolving around Son Goku..."

-o-

10.12 [Jeanne Summers]

Diaspro awakened in a kitchen, in a rustic looking house. She turned, observing the furnishings, her dress and apron, and the cold, somewhat desolate mountainside outside the window.

'Where the heck?' She felt a Ping go off, she sent one back. A second unidentified Ping followed a few seconds later, as did the clatter of small feet down the stairs.

The boy who emerged couldn't have been older than twelve, he stopped short at the sight of her, blonde hair in gravity defying disarray and bright blue eyes which stared at her, alarmed and confused. Diaspro stood awkwardly, awaiting his judgment.

"Well... you're not my usual mother."

"Moth-" Diaspro's loop memories hit her all at once, one in particular standing out. "OH! Wow... birth is a messy and terrifying procedure."

"So I've heard... and seen, I occasionally grow up to be a doctor. Hi, I'm Cloud."

"Diaspro, I'm from the Winx Club Loop, I don't know if you've heard of it."

"Can't say I have, what's it like over there?"

"Fairies, witches, magical battles for the fate of the universe. What's the story here?"

"Alien parasite-virus Hel-bent on destroying the world and riding it around the cosmos like a rocket ship, evil corporation literally sucking the life out of the Planet for fuel, Elite augmented SOLDIERs who tend to end up unstable, and wanting to eradicate large swaths of life... also lots of killable monsters," he shrugged, then added "we're a 'Video Game' in the Hub Loops." as if that explained a few things.

Which it kind of did, Diaspro had notice about twenty Laws of Reality, for which existence changed from universe to universe, that could be predicted with 98% accuracy for any given universe, based on the world's main 'media format' in a hub loop.

"Oh... mine's a cartoon... so are you the Anchor?"

Cloud nodded.

The duo stood there awkwardly for a while.

"So..." Diaspro twisted her apron in her hands, "you mentioned killable monsters?"

"Yeah... did you want to fight some after breakfast?"

"Yes please."

-x-x-

Diaspro sunk her blade into a monster, she had no idea what it was, though she was certain Cloud had told her at some point. They'd been traveling upwards to the mountain's summit, Cloud told her the evil alien parasite-virus was sleeping at the top.

He had a list, he'd said, of things he liked to get out of the way when he woke for an early Loop. Top three were killing Jenova (the evil alien parasite-virus), waking up someone named Vincent (and she should feel free to make as many vampire jokes as she wanted), and burning down an old mansion.

"Damnit!"

"What's wrong?" Diaspro made her way to the (not as young as he looked) boy's side, before them was a vast expanse, a factory of some kind on the far peak.

"Bridge is out," he grumbled.

"Lovix," Diaspro let the transformation wash over her, squashing a tiny smudge of irritation. 'Seriously, you join the 'main cast' and you get all the useful and cool transformations, how is that fair? It's like 'being a Winx' is a prerequisite for levelling up.'

Ignoring Cloud's surprised look, she picked him up and cradled him to her chest as she flew across the gap.

Setting him down on the far side, she huffed.

"What?"

"That is cool, and I want one," he said appraising her form. "So is Lovix like a spell or the form or what?"

"It's the name of this form, we tend to use the name of the transformation as an incantation to focus, but it's really not needed. It's mostly just a 'battle cry' thing."

Nodding his head in understanding, Cloud led the way into the building. There were tubes filled with glowing green liquid – Mako, he'd called it, the literal blood of the planet – with creatures floating inside. At the top of some stairs was a room, the word 'JENOVA' hung on a plaque over the doors.

"Oh that is heinous!" Diaspro exclaimed when she saw the thing inside the tube at the end of the room.

"Not for long," Cloud countered, pulling explosives out of his Pocket.

"What are you doing with those?"

"I'm going to blow up Jenova," he gave her a look like it should have been obvious.

"I am your mother young man, and I'm not about to let you play with explosives until you're older," Diaspro propped her hands on her hips and gave her best 'stern mother' face.

"Are... are you serious right now?" Cloud looked more and more confused. Diaspro held her pose a few seconds longer before letting it go with a scoff.

"Nooo, I just wanted to see what Fairy Dust does to an evil alien parasite-virus thingy. Enchantix," her body glowed as her form changed. She plucked the Fairy Dust bottle from her neck and, with a quick flick of her wrist, sheered the top of the container off without disturbing the contents. Cloud watched as an impossible amount of glittery dust poured from the tiny bottle, with the senses given to him thousands of loops before, he felt the flicker and pop of Jenova's alarm before she died.

The part of him that was Cetra – and hadn't that been an annoying loop – heard Gaia breathe a sigh of relief as the 'dust' spread through the Mako, destroying any and all trace of Jenova it found.

"I. Want. One." Cloud told his stand-in-mother.

"Visit our loop as a fairy and make it to Enchantix level," Diaspro flipped her hair over her shoulder with a trace of smugness. "Now, you said something about setting a mansion on fire, and a vampire friend?"

"Yeah, but you realize I have to blow the reactor anyway right, it's siphoning actual, literal 'Spirit of the Planet' Blood, without which the whole world dies."

Diaspro pouted, then grinned, magic flowing from her finger tips.

"I give you: Tecna's eco-friendly power station make over!"

"...Why is it pink?"

-x-x-

It had taken almost a year of whining by phone before Cloud gave into his friend's request to join him at ShinRa. Diaspro, tired of the town's views and pettiness, locked up the house behind them. Using her pre-existing reputation as the town witch, Diaspro told the town that any who tried to break in, would end up cursed in the worst possible manner.

Using her actual fairy powers and her extensive magical knowledge, she place protective spells and a few actual curses on the house just in case.

The pair took the long way around, stopping by several more reactors for Diaspro to change them - "But do they have to be pink?" - Diaspro enjoyed the opportunity to practice her photography on new scenery, new creatures, new faces.

The less said about Diaspro's first attempts at riding a Chocobo, the better.

-x-x-

To Cloud's dismay, Diaspro and Zack adored each other, and co-created Metal Chocobo, a fan club dedicated to Cloud. It wasn't the first time Zack had made Cloud a fan club - "It's good for your self-esteem!" - but it was the first time someone else was as enthusiastic about the club as Zack.

-o-

10.13{Tovath}

Eric was in a different wildness than usual. One that was full of monsters instead of dinosaurs. It was much harder to find food in this loop, because the plants just weren't growing properly. He had no idea of why this was and his in loop memories were no help at explaining anything.

It was four days before he met another person. He had set up a trap to catch game, but instead it caught a big green monster. A very mad big green monster that tried to kill him the minute he came to check on the trap. He tried to stop it with the cobbled together spear he had made, but that didn't work well. He got punched and then the monster threw lightning at him. Next thing he knew a young woman with green hair was leaning over him.

"What just happened?"he asked trying to sit up. His head was pounding and he almost didn't make it to a sitting position.

"You got into a fight with Phunbaba." Her hand started glowing with a white light and when she placed it on his forehead he felt much better. "Don't worry he is gone now."

"Good," what had Alan said to say when meeting a possible looper, oh ya, "I am feeling Loopy."

"Well, I will be an Anchor for you. I do believe you forgot to Ping."

"Sorry, I'm pretty new at this. I'm Eric Kirby of the Jurassic Park Loop."

"Terra Branford, Anchor for the Warring Triad Loop." she replied "Come on, we better hurry if we want to get to shelter before dark."

Eric nodded and got up only then realizing how much better he felt, oh and that his shirt was completely shot.

"Healing someone doesn't fix their clothes, but don't worry we have some spares where we are going." After hearing that Eric decided he really didn't want to know how badly he had been hurt and also that he really wanted to learn that healing spell.

After walking for several miles Eric saw a town in the distance. As they got closer he saw it was actually the ruins of a town. "What happened here?"

"Kefka. He turned his 'Light of Judgment' on it, Whenever we fail to stop him or awaken too late to do so, he does this to the world." Terra shook her head. "There are a number of reasons I'm grateful for the Loops, but I wish we could get rid of him permanently."

"Um," Eric gulped scared, "Do you need some help getting rid of him?"

Terra smiled, "Thank you, but my friend Celes is already taking care of him for this loop,"

A dog came up and Terra scratched it under the chin. She then took Eric into one of the least destroyed building and down the stairs.

"Mommy" cried out a whole bunch of little kids. Terra got down on her knees to give each of them a hug and ask if they had been good. Typical kid stuff. At least he thought that until he realized that besides Terra there were only two people older then him in the room.

"So where did you come from?" asked the guy.

"Oh sorry," said Terra, looking up from the kids. "Everyone, this is Eric. He helped me get rid of Phunbaba."

-o-

10.14 [kaleidoscope89]

[SUB-BRANCH: FINAL FANTASY XIV]  
[BASELINE COMPILED]  
[SETTING ANCHOR]  
[ANCHOR SET]  
[SUB-BRANCH: ANCHOR: ALPHINAUD LEVEILLEUR]  
[SUB-BRANCH: INITIALIZATION COMPLETE]  
[ACTIVATE SUB-BRANCH?]  
[YES/NO]

When Alphinaud woke-up due to an attack alarm, his first instinct was to grab his grimoire... only to find it missing. Not only that but even his Tataru-tailored clothing had gone missing, leaving him wearing his old Sharlayan traveling wardrobe.

For some reason, he was traveling in a ship again without being actually aware why he was in a ship. Though it was a comfort he spotted his sister with him, albeit also dressed in their old clothing. While she too was awake, she made no motion to get up from her spot. Odd, as the last time their ship was attacked on the way to Doma, she was one of the first to head up deck. In the end, neither of them left their seats as a crew member announced they managed to flee the attacking ships and they would be making port in Limsa soon. Unfortunately the rest of trip was not as exciting. With his sister returning to her nap, Alphinaud was left alone with his thoughts, trying to remember how he ended up inside this ship. He vaguely remembered bidding farewell to his father before leaving Sharlayan, but that had been many moons ago. Nothing came to mind as another announcement rang out that they had finally arrived in Limsa.

Arriving back at the docks brought a lot of memories, from the first day arriving in Eorzea to coming back from successfully liberating Doma.

"Doma? What are you talking about brother?"

Alphinaud was not aware he was thinking out loud.

"You do love the sound of your own voice."

He was about to give one of his own retorts when Alphinaud spotted a familiar face disembark from the ship. Of course they would be traveling with the Warrior of Light. Though why they just came from the ship, he had no clue. The last time he remembered they were together was on top the Royal Menagerie after Ala Mhigo. Aplhinaud wondered if the Warrior of Light had gone back from another journey as there was something different about them. A new haircut? Haircolor? Scars? Alphinaud couldn't put his finger on it. Maybe it was the clothes they were wearing. Compared to the intricate robes and armors the Warrior of Light used to wear, the clothes they currently wore screamed green adventurer. A far cry from the battle hardened Hero of Eorzea.

When he saw the Warrior of Light finish talking with a merchant from the ship, Alphinaud called out to greet them.

Only to realize he could not remember the Warrior of Light's name.

Hand frozen halfway to a wave, Alphinaud never vocalized his greeting as the Warrior of Light walked past. During the short period they made eye contact, there was no sign of recognition in the Warrior of Light's eyes. Alphinaud was just another stranger to him.

What was happening?

"Something wrong there Alphinaud?" his sister asked.

-o-

10.15 [flametusk]

Luna looked around in confusion at her surroundings, which were reminiscent of Insomnia's ruins, right after the king died, and were definitely not in Altissia.

Nearby was Gentiana, and she could see Umbra approaching as well.

"Gentiana, I have received a vision of the future. Altissia will fall as it is attacked by the Empire when I awaken the Hydraean."

"So you have Awoken to the nature of existence, it seems. Noctis will be pleased to hear it. When you next write him, use the words "loop" and "awake", with awake, or any form of it, being capitalized." Gentiana told the Oracle.

"You... speak differently than you tend to. Why?"

"The Multiverse is broken, and time is looping. I'll leave this world's Anchor to tell you the details, Luna. But you will soon become the second oldest being of this world, relatively speaking."

-x-x-

Noctis took the book from Umbra, and saw that Luna had written more than she usually does at this time. Curious about what the change was this loop, he let out a laugh of joy.

"What's on your mind, Noct?" Ignis asked.

"You remember how I told you guys about the time loops, and how I'm the only one who remembers what happens?" The Anchor replied.

"Yes, what does that have to do with lady Lunafreya's message?"

"She's looping. She's finally looping! I won't be alone anymore!"

"That's good to hear."

"Since she used the code words, I'm guessing that Shiva is Awake this loop, and told her about the loops."

Looking back at the book, Noctis wrote to Luna, telling her to meet him in Lestallum in a few days.

When Umbra left, Noctis felt happier than he has since he learned that he wouldn't always be the only one traveling through time.

-o-

If anyone would like to write for the Final Fantasy Infinite Loops, please contact me.


	11. Chapter 11

Final Fantasy Infinite Loops

Chapter 11

Disclaimer: All of the Final Fantasy characters belong to Square Enix. The original idea for the infinite loops comes from Innortal and later was codified by Saphroneth. OathtoOblivion started the Final Fantasy Loops thread and was the first compiler. I think that's everything...Oh yes Spacebattles is who hosts the Infinite Loops threads.

-o-

11.1 [tovath] [Emu Virus]

Thomas and Locke watched as Cecile tried to get her helmet back from an emu. After a moment Locke said, "So there is actually an emu virus now, weird."

Thomas looked at him. "You haven't had any problems with emus in your home loop."

"We had a loop where all the chocobos were replaced by emus, I thought it was just a variant."

-o-

11.2 [tovath]

Sansa Woke up again. After that last loop she didn't want to get up. In fact she didn't want to do anything, but curl up into a ball and cry. That wouldn't do, she knew that won't help anything. She opened her eyes to find that she was not, in fact, in her bed in Winterfall. She looked around quickly and her eye fell on a mirror. The face that was reflected back looked to be about fifteen. This was really not good.

She felt a hand on her shoulder and freaked out. She tried to grab them and throw them into the wall. She ended up flat on her back.

"Are you feeling Loopy?" asked the girl who had thrown her.

"I'm in need of an Anchor." Sansa said after she got her breath back.

"That would be my brother.' She held out her hand. "I'm Alma Beoulve, Looper of the Late Ivalice Loop."

Sansa grabbed Alma's arm and pulled herself up. "Sansa Stark, Looper of the Game of Thrones Loop."

"Anyway Lady Inias sent me up to bring you down for breakfast and classes. Do you want to go or would you like to sneak out and go find my brother?"

Sansa in-loop memories here was a finishing school for young ladies. It taught what a lady needed to know including, oddly, white magic "Possibly, Is anything likely to happen here?"

"Only thing that is going to happen before the end of term is the pranks I intend to pull on certain girls."

"What happens at the end of term?"

Corpse Brigade attacks my family estates. I could use your help making sure Teita doesn't die. Things won't actually get bad until after the King dies."

The king dies; that seems familiar. Sansa went though her in Loop memories, There were two possible heirs one was a baby and the other, Sansa suppressed a wince, was even worse than she had been at the beginning

-x-x-

It had been two days since Alma had Awoken. Their visiting Looper, Sansa, was fairly nice, if a bit twitchy, but that was nothing too odd considering how many people she knew who were a bit twitchy. At least she had finally found another Looper who likes embroidery. At this moment though she was reading a history book, a very specific history book _I wonder how Vaan did that._ This history book told her what changes Vaan, the Anchor for the earlier part of the Ivalice Loop had made.

"Alma, there is a man here that says he has a message from your brother." Said Baranell as she came in.

This wasn't normal for this time in the Loop. She wondered which of her brothers had sent it. If this was a variant where Dycedarg had some different information, things could get a bit dicey. She worried about this the whole way down to see the messenger, but once she saw who it was she knew that she didn't have to worry. The messenger was Leviathan in his male human form. Neither of them gave any indication that they recognized each other, of course; They were in public after all. Leviathan just handed her several letters and said that he would be staying at the Golden Spoon if she wished for him to carry any replies, then he left before anyone thought there was anything untoward going on. She would have to sneak out later to talk to him without ears on them.

She looked over the letters as she headed back to the room she shared with Teira and Sansa. There were letters from Terra; her brother, Ramza and one of the 'official' FF Branch newsletters.

-x-x-

It was much easier to sneak out of the boarding school then Sanza was expecting. Of course it helped that Alma knew exactly how to get out with the least fuss. The night was oddly light to Sansa.

"Good thing that it is a full moon tonight, huh?" said Alma.

Sansa nodded and decided not to mention that there was no moon in her world. They were going to see another Looper to find out the exact details of the political situation. They didn't have these memorized because, apparently there was a Looper in their past kept changing things. Alma had said that he spent more time goofing off then doing what he was suppose to, but she hadn't said what it was he was suppose to be doing.

The inn they went to was what many people would call respectable. The floors and table looked clean and the was no creepy rustling in the corners of the common room. When Alma asked asked after the man they were here to see though, the innkeeper didn't so much as rise an eyebow as he pointed to the stairs. "Third room don't be too loud."

They walked into the room to see a tall man with a long beard.

"Sansa, might I make known to you Leviathan, the Lord of All Waters." Said Alma before turning to Leviathan, "This is Lady Sansa Stark of the Game of Thrones Loop." Sansa was glad for the formal introduction, most loopers didn't bother with it.

Leviathan nodded gravely

They sat back into the chairs that Leviathan pulled out of his Pocket. "To start off Ramza is, of course Awake, so is Delita. Sephiroth has Looped in as Marquis Elmdore, so that should simplify things somewhat."

Sansa remembered the picture that Disparo had shown of her son Cloud fighting against someone with long silver hair."Isn't he Cloud's enemy?"

"Not anymore, at least not when he is Awake," said Leviathan, "He started Looping a little while ago. Apparently being caught in an endless time loop has been good for his psyche for some reason. So what this means is we will have some extra help containing the upcoming mess. I believe that the plan is to first get the Death Corpse working for them. Delita thinks they should have that taken care of before break." Alma nodded and Leviathan continued. " My hopes for this Loop is to capture one of the Lucavi, but I will that aside for something more pressing if I must."

"More pressing… What would that be, sir?" Sansa thought about other political problems that could happen.

"Why your training, of course. This is a good Loop for it." He looked off into the distance suddenly. "I will be back soon." Then he turned into a giant serpent and disappeared.

"What just happened?"

"Levithen is what is called an esper, occasionally he gets summoned." said Alma nonchalantly, "He will be back soon."

An In-loop memory flashed through Sansa's mind of a book that talked of monsters that could be summoned. "He's…What is he?"

"Well, under the scientific definition he is human."

Sansa wanted to believe that, but that statement sounded to much like a false reassurance to be trusted. "What does that really mean?"

Alma smiled a a real smile. "Espers can interbreed with humans so scientifically they are the same species, but magically they are quite different. They are however just as intelligent and at least as moral as humans, not that is saying much sometimes."

Sansa relaxed and Alma waved her hand as if waving away the past topic. "So what combat skills do you want to work on?"

Sansa made a face "Why do I have to have more combat training?"

"Because if you don't chose one, my brother will drag you through an overview of all the job classes." Alma shrugged " He did that for me after he stopped being overprotective. You could try the Dragoon job class, at least the jumping abilities will be some use outside of battle."

"What does that entail?"

"Learning how to use a spear and jump in full armor." Said Alma, "It is less ridiculous than it sounds, it involves being able to attack from above is good and being able to survive jumping off cliffs and castle walls. That can be really useful for faking one's death."

"Or for pulling someone else over the edge," said Sansa starting to think of what those skills could used for.

"Thinking about something from your baseline?"

Sansa nodded, but she didn't want to talk about it. "So why does Leviathan want to capture a Lucavi alive."

Alma sighed "The Occuria did something and then Ajora did something. We are not sure what either of those things were but the effect was to transform some beings that we think used to be espers into the Lucavi. Leviathan wants to figure out what happened, so that he can make sure it never happens to his people again."

-o-

11.3 [Flametusk]

Noctis cursed as he failed to catch the arapaima yet again.

"Alright. This thing is impossible to catch. I need better fishing gear. Maybe I'll ask around in my next fused loop, see what there is."

"What was that Noctis?" Gladio asked.

"Nothing Gladio, just me grumbling about this fish that I can't seem to catch, even with literal months of experience with this thing on the line."

"Ah. Perhaps a change in scenery might do you some good. We've been camped out here at the Vesperpool for days. By the way, breakfast is ready." Ignis said as he and Prompto walked up to them.

"Thanks Ignis. How about we head over to the other end of Lucis? Go to Galdin. Relax on the beach."

"How about we go to Altissia instead? Luna and Leviathan won't wait forever."

"Yeah, you're right Prompto. Okay then. To Altissia it is!" Noctis pumped his fist into the air, still holding his fishing rod.

"Besides. Maybe you'll find better fishing supplies there." Gladio said.

"I hope so."

-o-

11.4 [Flametusk]

"So, I have to go to the bottom of this Antitower place?" Cecil asked the witch, "Where can I find it? Somewhere underground, right?"

" Yes, yes. Right through this door. I'm glad the Warrior of Light has some sense of logic. You'll need it to take care of the Antitower's guardians," Matoya said.

-x-x-

"A giant talking frog, one of those a spriggan things, what's next? A giant killer rabbit?" Cecil asked nobody in particular as he turned the corner, before stopping in shock.

"Of all the things to be brought from my branch in this fused loop, why did it have to be THOSE?" Dancing in front of him were six dolls.

"We are Calcabrina! Adorable dolls! Terrible dolls! Yip-ho-ho!"

"Nope," Cecil said before pulling casting the strongest fire magic he knew, while simultaneously burning them with a flamethrower he took from his Pocket.

"Nope. Not going to deal with you. Not a chance. Nope," he said before throwing some grenades at the scorched splinters of what remained of the dolls.

And then they merged. Right before the grenades exploded.

-o-

11.5 [HarmonyChoas]

Zidane glared at the two Alexandrian Soldiers that had rounded their corners, Blank ran out of hiding to assist him. The plan had gone off without a hitch... until he Woke up, freezing in his tracks, trying to get his memories straight.

"Why did you freeze up Zidane?" Blank said, stealing a Potion from the Soldier behind Zidane as he did the same with the Soldier in front of him.

"Sorry, just Woke up." Zidane replied.

"What, were you sleep walking through all of this?"

"Eh, something like that." Zidane said as he attacked the soldier in front of him, the guard blocked it and threw him back before casting Mini.

Zidane, caught off guard by the spell he thought was a Blizzara spell, barely managed to dodge it... leaving Blank to take the blow for him. Zidane, tried to run into his Pocket but found it was a No Pocket Loop at the very least and was hit by another Mini spell from the other Soldier.

"This way!" Zidane heard Blank shout at him from the room they changed in, having ran the instant he realized he was shrinking. Zidane ran after his friend, dodging the boots of the Soldiers... only to run into a wall of ice.

"Where do you think you're going boy?" A Soldier asked, grabbing Zidane and giggling as he struggled in her grip.

"Grrr. Let me go!" Zidane shouted.

"Not until we have your friend and Queen Brahne sees you." She sighed happily. "I love my job."

"I've got the other one ma'am." The other Soldier said walking out with Blank. "And if the Queen let's them live, I got a date too." She giggled, Zidane looked at Blank, who shrugged helplessly.

"Ugh, if I were any other Squad Leader you'd be facing at least a reprimand for that. They are kinda cute though." The Soldier holding Zidane said as they walked up the stairs to get to Queen Brahne.

"What is it?" General Beatrix demanded as they came in.

"We bring prisoners ma'am."

"Oh? Male or female... or is it another Qu?"

"Male, ma'am." The Soldier said, holding Zidane out, the other one doing the same with Blank.

"I'll take them to her majesty, go back to your posts." Beatrix said, the soldiers saluted and walked off when they gave them to her. She then walked down over to Queen Brahne. "Your majesty, some soldiers just came by and dropped off some prisoners."

"Oh? Show them to me." Brahne said, Beatrix set them down on a tray in front of the queen and backed up a few steps. "So, what exactly are you doing snooping around my castle little boys?"

"Ooo! Prisoners? Mom, can I see?" A horribly familiar voice said. Zidane looked around and spotted her, Eiko, still with her horn on, he looked around more and spotted Princess "Dagger" "Sarah" Garnet, also with her horn still on.

"What? You have two daughters!?" Blank exclaimed in shock.

"Actually I have three, however I only recently adopted Eiko here from some sort of destroyed village on another continent. In case something happens to Garnet, and Sarah after I am gone from this world." Brahne said. "Garnet is, unfortunately, sick so she's not here at the moment. Anyway," She glared at the two thieves. "What are you doing here?"

Zidane sighed. "We came to kidnap Princess Garnet." He blinked. "Wait-"

"Hmph. Thought so." Brahne said. "The tray you're standing on makes the person tell the truth. So good luck lying, and if you somehow do, the tray will burn your tiny bodies to a crisp."

"Wait, you knew about this?" Blank asked.

"Well of course! Regent Cid and I are good friends, and he has told me to expect some criminals to attempt to take Garnet away. He gets rid of criminals and we get more toys. It's beneficial to both sides... of course he doesn't know what we do with you, but he doesn't care, and if you had gotten away with it, he'd tell me how to better my defenses after getting a report from the kidnappers and returning her."

"Huh... that's actually pretty smart." Zidane replied. "How long have you been at this?"

"Hmmm, six years I think."

"Um, mother?" Sarah asked, walking over to them. "Can I have all of them? Garnet got the last batch."

"Hmmm. Sure. But let's wait until the end of the play before we grab them."

-x-x-

"Ugh, that took way too long." Sarah said as she collapsed on her bed, both Zidane and Blank were in her hands, bouncing up and down as her hands did. "Zidane... are you Awake?"

"Oof! Yeah, Dagger. I'm feeling a little Loopy after that last bounce. How are you?" Zidane replied, getting his bearings as she let go of them.

"Sorry about that." Dagger said, giggling. "Well, my mother is far more stable this loop... although it seems that Kuija hasn't visited, she knows how to make Black Mages. In fact, Vivi is the Magic Adviser to my mother. Although, he hasn't Woke up to my knowledge."

"How about Rusty?" Zidane asked. "Is he Awake?"

"What are you talking-" Blank was cut off by a knock on the door.

"Princess!" Steiner's voice came from the other side of the door. "We have the rest of them."

"Come in!" The Princess replied, Steiner, the rest of the Tantalus crew, Vivi, and all three Black Waltzes walked into the room. "Zidane's Awake."

"Good. That thief will finally get some sort of justice for stealing you away for all of these eons." Steiner replied, though he looked a little ill.

"Sorry, but if I don't do it then someone else who's not as nice as me will do it." Dagger said as she cast Mini on Marcus, Baku, and Cinna. Then she grabbed them and put them all on her bed.

"Hey, uh, Princess?" Blank asked. "Can I have a favor? Uh..." He blushed. "Can you get me to _Le Flavor_? I'd rather not become a stain because I stood up a guard... on the off chance that I meet her when not with you."

"Huh? Oh! Yeah, sure." Dagger said, she then turned to Vivi. "Are you Awake?"

"Yes, I am, Princess." Vivi nodded. "Seems to be a Null Loop."

"Well... since Kuija hasn't shown up at all, wanna make this Loop a vacation until he or Garland does?" She looked at Zidane.

Zidane shrugged. "Sure. Besides, when am I going to have the chance to explore this place at this size?"

"Would someone explain what exactly a Loop is?" Baku asked.

"I will. Just so you know Zidane, you're kinda cute at that size." Dagger said, kissing him lightly as Steiner, Vivi, and the Black Waltzes left.

Zidane smiled. "What, and I'm not when I'm normal sized?"

-o-

11.6 [Flametusk]

Odin looked at his terminal.

"Well, that's interesting," He said to himself.

"At least it's not Kefka. I wouldn't even be entertaining thoughts of this if it was. But I don't really see the harm here," he said before pressing yes.

-x-x-

Ultros was watching another poor sucker getting blown out of the coliseum by Typhon, when his view of the arena was suddenly replaced by a few familiar faces, and the cheering of the crowd was replaced with music.

More worrying was the smell of calamari accompanied by a burning sensation.

"Ouch! What did I ever do to deserve being burned in front of an audience again? I was being a good octopus, I swear!" Ultros yelped as another burst of flame hit him.

"Ow! That one really hurt! Don't cook the cephalopod! Seriously though, I'm actually feeling out of the loop about why you're attacking me. And why I'm back here," Ultros paused thoughtfully until he was struck by a bolt of lightning.

"If I leave will you stop burning me?" He asked.

"So you admit that you aren't worthy of Maria's hand you lowborn cuttlefish?" Locke asked.

"Yes, yes, now lemme outta here!" Ultros said, before crawling to the exit.

Right after the octopus left, Locke Awoke and let out a Ping, only getting one in return. A glance at Celes showed him that she wasn't Awake, before he suddenly stopped in his tracks.

' _Did Ultros say again?_ '

-x-x-

When Ultros went outside, he noticed that the world didn't look very destroyed at all.

"Am I back in time? That must mean one thing. I was sent back in time so that I can stop Kefka and save the world! I knew I was more than a washed-up old octopus!"

-x-x-

"I think that we have a new Looper, Terra," Locke told her on the airship.

"Really? Who is it?"

"I'm... not sure you'll like this."

That set Terra's nerves on edge. "It's not Kefka, right? Or Gestahl?" She asked nervously.

"What? No. Neither of them, and I hope they never loop," Locke said.

"Then who is it?"

Locke's response was interrupted by a voice.

"I've recently discovered that it is my destiny to save the world and stop Kefka. But, uh, Typhon can't carry me up to that giant floating island. So I'm gonna just hitch a ride here. I'm sure you understand," a purple fanged octopus said.

"Yeah... I'm pretty sure Ultros is looping," Locke said, his face resting on his palm.

"Are you calling me crazy?" The cephalopod in question demanded.

"No, I'm saying that you're time traveling now. For some reason," Locke replied while Terra gathered her thoughts.

-x-x-

"I don't believe you. I'm here on a mission to save the world, and become famous from it!" Ultros said, before squirming off of the airship, and crawling towards the top of the floating continent.

-x-x-

Ultros found himself in a river looking at a raft after that huge monster obliterated him.

"I might have been a little hasty not believing you," he said, looking towards Terra. 

-o-

11.7 [Garebel]

Anakin blinked at the sight before him.

He, Padme, Ashoka, Leia, & Luke were at the Spira Casino, all Awake, with Luke & Leia being in their teens(for the Loop.). They were only going to take a vacation, here.

However, a giant sphere of water was not a usual part of a casino.

The group uneasily walked up to the casino, wondering if they came to the right place. A girl was nearby near a speeder, and was trying to do something with it.

"…Sinspite little…!" She cursed out, before banging on the speeder. Luke, seeing this, rushed over. He took a few of her tools, and, guessing on her purpose, quickly repaired the speeder. The girl looked quite amazed at the kid's extreme amount of skill. "Thanks, I was wondering how I was to fix this Machina!" The girl growled out, though not at Luke.

'…Machina? Wait…'. Luke thought before he let out a Ping. The girl looked at him before Pinging back. "Huh, a visiting Looper?" Luke asked the girl who nodded.

"Almost my whole gang are here. Rikku, Looper from Spira ." Rikku told Luke who nodded.

"Luke Skywalker, one of the Anchors of the Star Wars Branch, My father is actually the other Anchor, but we Anchor different time periods." Luke explained, before asking, "what's up with the sphere of water, though?"

"It's actually used for our Branch's Sport, Blitzball. Want me to explain it?" She asked Luke who shook his head.

"I actually came here with my Family, who are all Awake, plus a student of my dad's. Might be better to explain it in one go, than multiple times." He explained to Rikku, who nodded.

"Alright, Let's go!" Rikku yelled out, before grabbing Luke's hand, and basically dragged him along.

-o-

11.8 [Facepalmist]

"Squall!"

Squall blinked. And then blinked again at what he had just Awakened to. Namely: Edea's Orphanage, looking distinctly less run-down than he tended to see it outside of flashbacks. That and Edea ( _'Matron...'_ ) herself, who did not look much younger but did look a bit more worried.

This loop didn't look like it was going to last long. It seemed he'd come to awareness just after defeating Ultimecia in the future.

"Excuse me," Edea Kramer asked, this time addressing him. "Have you seen a little boy?"

"You don't have to worry. The boy won't go anywhere," he replied in the traditional manner.

Squall had long since come to the conclusion that it was the certainty with which he said it that reassured her, much as it did now. "I think so, too. Poor thing..."

Right on time, the mortally-wounded Ultimecia materialized and began to lurch over to where the two were standing. The anachronistic SeeD dipped her a calm nod and a comment of "Ultimecia, Edea Kramer. Matron, Ultimecia."

"...The sorceress?" Edea wondered.

"Yeah. She was trying to compress time, a long way into the future. We just defeated her, so she's probably here to pass on her powers." Squall shrugged. "Time-loop shenanigans, don't ask - I don't think I'll be here long enough to explain too much anyway."

"I...can't...disappear...yet," mumbled the dying sorceress, staggering towards Edea.

"Well, if it's me or one of the kids... And I am a sorceress already. All right, Ultimecia; I shall take your powers," Edea declared.

Ultimecia promptly did so, passed away, and sublimated into the cobblestones for good measure. Edea staggered. "Is this...the end?" she gasped.

"In a sense," Squall agreed, stepping away as she straightened.

Edea took a breath and shook herself, focusing more intently on the strange young man. "You called me Matron...and come to think of it, you knew my name too. Who are you?"

Squall dropped into parade rest. "A SeeD, from Balamb Garden. Which your husband-slash-knight told us were your ideas - though that might've been you not mentioning me to him, or him not mentioning me to us." The loop-memories hadn't yet surfaced, but it was highly unlikely for anything in them to enlighten him regarding that particular detail. "Garden trains SeeDs. SeeDs are trained to defeat the sorceress - specifically, the sorceress we just defeated...and will defeat. I repeat: time-loop shenanigans, don't ask - please, it's even more complicated than it sounds and the time warp won't let me stay for much longer."

Edea blinked. "What are you saying? You're..."

"Yes," he interrupted. "I'll be returning shortly. I've done everything needed to close the time-loop."

A pitter-patter of small feet sounded from behind Squall as his young analogue dashed up. "...I can't find Sis. ...Am I...all alone?"

By the time the man's presence had sunk through the boy's misery, Squall had already begun responding. "You're not alone, kid. You got Matron, you got the other kids here. You'll find your Sis one day. But not until it's time." Young Squall blinked up at him. "Ask Matron, she'll tell you."

The boy duly turned to his Matron, who duly distracted the boy, though she spared the SeeD a subtle nod as Commander Squall Leonhart saluted and began to walk off toward the nearby field adjoining the orphanage.

...Only for said time-traveller to stop in his tracks. "...Oh _what_."

Squall's loop-memories had just hit, such as they were. A lot of things were hazy already, without the aide that Yggdrasil's remote memory-cache otherwise afforded him. But one glaring divergence had just leapt out at him in his preliminary skim:  
Trabia Garden had a Headmaster, a headmaster that they had met in the aftermath of that Garden's bombing. And apart from him presumably being in his thirties, that headmaster had been such a dead ringer for Squall that the others had honestly wondered if they were related.

The man hadn't said anything. Then again; if his suspicions about just why the time warp hadn't reclaimed him yet were on target, Headmaster 'Leon Crest' wouldn't have said anything anyway. For much the same reason Cid wouldn't have said anything - or for that matter, why Edea hadn't said anything.

Yet _more_ time-loop shenanigans. Figured.

Well. At least it didn't look like this loop would be so short anymore. In fact, it began to dawn on the increasingly cheerful ex-Commander and Headmaster-to-be that this coming decade-plus could be a golden opportunity for self-improvement...

Meanwhile, his younger self's footsteps retreated, their timbre changing to that of clumsily trodden floorboards as they faded out of hearing. Another set of footsteps approached.

"You're still here," Edea noted. "Do you know how to get back? Do you know where?" She paused, seemingly searching for how to phrase her words. "Are you going to be all right by yourself?"

Squall gazed out across the field, which was in full bloom. He smiled. "I'll be all right, Matron. Because I'm not alone."

There was a beat of silence. Then two, then three.

Then Squall snorted, both at his own superstitious nonsense and at the World Tree for so often playing along with it...albeit not in this case.

"But as it turns out, I just remembered meeting an older version of myself in the future. It seems I still have a role to play. So it looks like I'll be going back the long way." He turned to Edea. "Since there's only one Squall permitted in this time and place Mrs. Kramer, call me Leon for the time being. Now, I'm wondering if Cid is at home and whether I can speak to him? because I have a business proposition to do with a school..."

-x-x-

In the end, Squall had elected to tread lightly as far as dropping future knowledge on the flabbergasted knight and his typically serene sorceress. Ultimecia rarely ever bothered enough with her hosts/puppets to steal the more intricate details of their lives, but it had been known to happen in some few loops. Edea had understood, and reacted with some relief when he added that the same stipulation would apply to her husband.

If anything, it was the business side where the tips and tricks were dispensed. Contacting the Shumi Tribe - and if need be, the outcast individual NORG - for assistance with returning Balamb and Galbadia Gardens to basic functionality while researching the possibility of restoring mobility, with a priority on restoring Balamb Garden as Vinzer Deling would doubtlessly funnel his own funding-streams into the Garden that would go on to polish his elite troops. Warning Cid that the Garden Master would almost certainly betray him in his greed and megalomania, and would most likely buy the loyalty of the Faculty and attempt to suborn the Galbadian Headmaster. Giving him a summary of both Garden's overt purpose and its primary gil-generating mechanism, as a military academy that produced and managed the world's preeminent mercenary corps. Noting that most of the children currently here would either enter one of the Gardens or sign on to Edea's less mercenary, more _immediately_ mobile White SeeD corps for Ellone's protection. Mentioning the extreme utility of Guardian Forces in combat, as well as the personal cost of their continued use.

All of these things would help Cid to keep an eye out, though Squall privately held doubts that the middle-aged orphanage host would truly be up to the task; there was a _reason_ that NORG had been able to take such an iron grip on Garden, and it had mostly been because Cid had given it to him. (That, and his loop-memories of what was to come hadn't exactly filled him with confidence...) But what would help, at least initially, was the ten million gil that he left with Cid as seed money for the enterprise.

Fortunately, his Pocket was not off-limits; otherwise he would have been lucky to lay hands on even a tenth the size of that investment. The looks on their faces, he privately admitted, would have been priceless if not for the enormous sum required to bring it about.

Come the next morning, Squall emerged from his Tent, which had been erected on the far edge of the field. (Edea had offered him to stay the night, but he could tell that she was more than a little uneasy about his continued presence in this time, let alone under her roof.) It would be a dusty trek eastward that day to the Chocobo Forest of Fun, which he _would_ have to walk as his Pocket wasn't exactly big enough yet to store something as large as the Ragnarok in. At least he had a Chocowhis, so he would be fine even if the forest turned out to be devoid of guides - and at least he did have enough room in his Pocket for a speedboat, otherwise even a chocobo would have not helped him get back to civilization and he would've had to rely on whoever ran supply to the Cape of Good Hope region for a lift.

And if nothing else: at least he had all that research into emulating para-magic and other abilities that were assumed to require a junctioned GF to function - which was a very good thing right about now, because his array of GF's had not traveled back with him. No doubt his stealth was going to get a workout. He'd not yet managed to emulate the field that was generated by the Enc-None ability, so it was either practice his stealth or rely on those skills he had managed to learn for himself.

...But whatever. He had trust in his Loops-honed skills and experience as well as his natively-attained fitness - and he did have some stat-boosters stockpiled, so there were options in case of an emergency.

That still left the question of where to go. Sure, in a little over a decade he would have to be in position at Trabia Academy. But in the meantime...

"...Fisherman's Horizon," Squall decided. The pacifistic nature of its denizens might irk him, but FH was otherwise a good balance between high technological advancement and low levels of paranoia regarding random drifters who couldn't provide proof of their identity. Not to mention, a couple years there would go a long way to setting him up with that identity.

And just as importantly, the place had a junk shop. He'd been waiting for some spare time to learn the ins and outs of weaponsmithing, ever since that Spira loop as Kimahri. Rikku had confided to him about a certain near-legendary attribute that she thought she could customise onto one of their weapons, if only they could find enough Dark Matters. The time-displaced SeeD was not particularly optimistic about his success in the short term, true; but the ability to customise his weapons for more power, efficiency or durability, let alone to make or optimise them with materials to hand, was obviously a worthy goal to strive for.

And that was without taking into account the benefits if he should ever succeed. To build and wield with his own hands a gunblade with this 'Break Damage Limit' attribute... More: if he could further apply the process to alter his comrades' weapons... if he could perfect the method and teach it to the Card Club Joker for use on SeeD's weapons, maybe to the Esthar scientists before the Lunar Cry to upgrade their Eliminators...

A world without monsters. To anyone else in the world, it would have been sheer absurdity. To Squall, a man whose life had revolved and always would revolve around a titanic struggle against the foreboding future and the god in humanoid form that bestrode it? To a soldier who had spent an eternity riding Lionheart's edge between devoting himself to fight and allowing himself to relate to those important to him?

"Nothing to lose... and everything to gain."

Now that, _that_ was something he wanted to see at least once in his cyclical, seemingly infinite existence. Almost as much as he wanted his friends to join him within it. 

-o-

11.9 [tovath]

Once again Zidane, Dagger and Vivi had landed on Pinnacle rocks and once again they were asked to look for manifestations of Ramuh. The first one was by the Gargan Roo curricle, it said "But the happy family was not to be, for an evil man was searching for the power of magic. He searched though ancient texts and eventually found the same way into the Esper world that the woman had."

That was not what he usually said. "A variant maybe?" said Dagger. Zidane and Vivi just shrugged

In the pond under the roots of the tree past the moogle, Monty, was the next manifestation that said "The girl grew up with no control of her fate until she met Tritoch. He freed her from her chains. She made friends, but didn't understand her magic." On top of the branch above the pond and Monty was another manifestation who said "A human found her way into the Esper world. She fell in love with an Esper named Maduin. They had a child."

Among some low branches in the pond was a third manifestation who said "Many Espers were captured and taken to be drained of their powers. As for the half esper child, she was found to be 'most interesting.' Her mother objected to her being taken away and so was killed."

"This is Terra's story."

There was a chest with a mythril armlet on the way to the last manifestation. Zidine snagged that: No sense in turning down free treasure, even if he had a whole pile of them. Next to the chest was the last manifestation who said "The half esper came to me in great distress, not understanding why. Her friends freed the captured espers to help her. But now I am here. Why?"

" Do you think that means..." said Dagger

"Well, let's go find him and ask him."

The place that they could meet the full version of Ramuh was on a branch under the bridge. Dagger told him, "If I put the story pieces in the right order the story is 'A human found her way into the Esper world. She fell in love with an Esper named Maduin. They had a child. But the happy family was not to be, for an evil man was searching for the power of magic. He searched though ancient texts and eventually found the same way into the Esper world that the woman had. Many Espers were captured and taken to be drained of their powers. As for the half esper child, she was found to be 'most interesting.' Her mother objected to her being taken away and so was killed. The girl grew up with not control of her fate until she met Tritoch. He freed her from her chains. She made friends, but didn't understand her magic. The half esper came to me in great distress, not understanding why. Her friends freed the captured espers to help her. But now I am here. Why?"

"And the answer to your question is that you are Looping." said Zidane "What this means is...

-o-

11.10 [Flametusk]

"Is Tidus alright?" Yuna asked Auron.

"I don't know. He's been this way since he Woke in Dream Zanarkand. Something about Sandworms and some place called Blenjeel."

"So he had a Jedi Knight loop. I understand what he's going through." Yuna said, as they watched Tidus horribly murder all of Bikanel's Sand Worm population.

"Did he really swim all the way from Dream Zanarkand?"

"He learned to swim before walking, this loop. Perfected the Jecht Shot before he learned to talk. Jecht is really proud of him, unlike most loops." The legendary Guardian replied.

-o-

11.11 [Flametusk]

Alphinaud found himself back in time again, this time on the boat to Limsa Lominsa five years after the Calamity.

It wasn't often that he ended up at this part of the boat, it usually only happened on the rare occasion that he was the Warrior of Light, himself.

As the ship approached the city, however, Alphinaud noticed something was... different.

' _I wonder what the cause for the music is?_ ' He thought to himself.

-x-x-

Try as he might, Alphinaud couldn't discern the source of the music playing non-stop. It changed when he fought a creature, or when he was in a certain place, and so on.

-x-x-

"I found it difficult to believe that the Amalj'aa have an orchestra waiting for me to face Ifrit. Less difficult to believe that Ysayle's faction was ready to perform somewhere unseen but definitely not inaudibly for when they called upon Shiva. But the exact same music, without a single difference, on the way to Azys Lla? Something doesn't seem right. Unless... this musical accompaniment to my travels are part of the Echo this time? What are your thoughts Krile?"

"That would be the most reasonable explanation. The only thing that doesn't make sense is that you've experienced these events without the Echo manifesting itself. Without being the Warrior of Light at all. It would seem that these alternate lives of yours are visions of what could have been. But to what purpose I wonder?" The Lalafell said.

"The most curious part of all this, though, is how variable the five years between the Calamity and the Warrior of Light's arrival to Eorzea. Myself, in this case. And why nobody else with the Echo ever experiences this. Although I suppose it's just unique in how it manifested in me," Alphinaud speculated. "However, I could do without the repetitiveness of the music in conversations such as these."

-o-

11.12 [Chronopie]

"Oh hello. I see fire in those eyes! How do I put it? They've a strong sense of duty!"

"Oh not this again." Tiz muttered.

"Like whatever you start, you'll always see through, no matter..." Anne's tone changed slightly, "what..."

Tiz looked right. Edea, Magnolia and Yew were glaring at the fairy with something much like hate. Which made some sense, he had to admit, given that she'd sent Kaiser Oblivion and Agnes to the far end of time, and then turned the light of the Holy Pillar on the very moon itself.

Quite honestly, She'd won. They'd be pouring their hopes and dreams into the hourglass later, and time travel would be involved, but for now, she'd won.

"This isn't right." The fairy murmured, distractedly, as she examined her black attire. She'd been on the cape of... What was the name of that place? "Caldisla... Norende?"

At that, Tiz started. The villainous Fairy was clearly remembering things she shouldn't have known about.

It was Edea's startled shout that alerted the others to Tiz's frenzied Leap, Ciggma Khint's _Spellfencer_ Asterisk primed with Firaja, even as his pants faded into Barras Lehr's _Monk_ attire.

-x-x-

"Oh hello. I see fire in those... eyes..."

"Hello Anne." the formerly (?) dying Tiz sat up, before the Fairy clad in white's astonished gaze.

-o-

11.13 [Harmony Choas]

Vivi was walking around Alexandria, wondering what, exactly, he felt was different, when he heard his 'theme song' coming from the Morning Star Bar. Curiosity took over and he entered... and found a bunch of Black Mages playing music, they stopped when they spotted him.

"Hello there little mage." The, apparently, leader of the group said as he spotted Vivi. "I sense you're going to be on an adventure soon, would you like some music for the road?"

"Who are you?" Vivi asked.

"We're the Black Mages. This world's first and only Black Mage band... as far as we know that is. Interested in some music?"

"... How much?" Vivi asked.

"Well... since we're undoubtedly going into war zones... 1 million gil. It will cover beds, food and clothing for us all."

"Hmm... deal!" Vivi said, pulling out the required amount of gill, it wouldn't be like they couldn't get more during their travels.

-o-

11.14 [kaleidoscope89]

Alphinaud rolled away from the explosion behind him and hid behind some cover.

As the Warrior of Light for this alternative life, Alphinaud had the unenviable task of fighting the Ascians. Sadly this was not something new for him with the repeating time, but the motivation and methods tended to change from time to time. This time's motivation was most common one: merge the stars to revive Zodiark. Nothing too difficult as time would tend to reset before there was even a possibility of it happening. However this repeat was harder… because of who he had to fight.

"Resistance is futile, brother!"

Alisaie launched an aetherial blade at his hiding spot.

"Stop this, sister!" Alphinaud jumped to the next available cover as his old one exploded. "Whatever magicks the Ascians have on you, fight it!"

"Silly Warrior of Light. You think the Ascians tricked me?" Alisaie dove to his hiding spot with her aetherial blade in hand. "They only showed me the truth!"

Alphinaud frantically fought off his sister trying to kill him. His old weakness in the martial arts rectified by the experience of the time repeats. Skill-wise, he matched if not surpassed normal Alisaie's capabilities. However, he was fighting an Ascian-boosted Alisaie, making it a desperate struggle.

In the end he won the fight... by driving his own blade through his sister.

"Why did you do this sister? We could have worked together to save Eorzea!"

Alisaie coughed up blood before laughing at him. "You- You could never understand what it feels like to live underneath your shadow. Always the lesser twin. After all, who can match up to the perfect Warrior of Light?"

Her breath was becoming shallower and her vision no longer focused. Yet, she reached to his face.

"Maybe if I could save the world… You would finally see me as your equal…"

Alisaie's form went limp in his arms. Alphinaud could only cradle his sister in his arms as he cried out in anguish.

-x-x-

When Alphinaud opened his eyes, he found himself in the boat to Limsa again. The sound of the raid had awoken him, along with his usual companion.

"Oh, are we there yet, Alphinaud? You think we- why are you hugging me!?"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry-" Alphinaud repeatedly apologized. He released her from the hug but held on to her shoulders. "I never thought less of you! You're my sister and I care for you no matter what!"

"Alphinaud Leveilleur stop it!" Alisaie hastily placed a hand on her brother's mouth. "I don't know what's gotten into you but it's only a pirate raid. The ship should be able to outrun it and make it to Limsa safely."

"Huh?" questioned Alphinaud once his mouth was free. "Oh right. Limsa… Yes, we should be arriving soon."

"Good. Now that you have your wits about. What was that all about?"

"N-Nothing really! Just a bad dream I suppose." Alphinaud tried to wave it off. "I dreamt something terrible had happened to you."

"Must have been a horrendous dream to cause you to act as you did." remarked his sister.

"It was…" Alphinaud stared at his hands which he knew was stained with blood not too long ago. "You know you can tell me anything Alisaie? Anything bothering you, you can tell me."

"Yep, definitely a horrendous dream."

"Please Alisaie." Alphinaud gripped her hands. "Anything bothering you. Even if it's about me."

It looked like his sister was about to give another one of her retorts but was taken aback by the seriousness on his face. There was a short pause while she seemed to consider something until she eventually decided to go through with it.

"Fine. I suppose there is something I've been wanting to share..."

"Anything." Alphinaud repeated.

Alisaie hesitated a bit before sharing. "This may sound strange but I think I've been repeating time. I know it's hard to believe but I always go back to the past at some point and- Why are you hugging me again!?"

Alphinaud laughed with tears in his eyes as Alisaie struggled in his arms.

-o-

11.15 [Flametusk]

"We'll have to take the train to Niflheim." Ignis said after they left Altissia.

"I've got a better idea," Luna, who was Awake, said. "How about we take the Regalia?"

"Lady Oracle, are you kidding? It's meant for roads. The Regalia can't handle that kind of terrain." Gladiolus told her.

"She means the Regalia Type-F," Noctis said, "It doesn't need roads. Besides, Ardyn would expect us to take the train. My powers will also not be blocked until we get closer to Zegnautus Keep."

"How do you know all this? And how did you manage to block that attack that would have blinded Ignis?" Gladiolus asked.

"I told you. I'm a time traveller."

-o-


End file.
